INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY OF THE FAMILY VOLUME 37, NUMBER 1, SPRING 2011 IMMIGRANT LATINA MOTHERS AS TARGETS OF LEGAL VIOLENCE LEISY J. ABREGO University of California, Los Angeles CECILIA MENJÍVAR Arizona State University Increasingly restrictive immigration laws powerfully shape experiences of Latina immigrant mothers in the U.S. These laws impede mothers and children from migrating together, cause and prolong family separations, and create a real and constant fear of deportation. Based on ethnographic observations and dozens of in-depth interviews conducted between 1998 and 2010 with Guatemalan, Mexican, and Salvadoran immigrant mothers and their children, we contend that the implementation of contemporary U.S. immigration laws are a form of legal violence. These laws restrict immigrant women’s ability to mother their children and bring suffering to women when they try to fulfill their parental responsibilities. As we demonstrate, the current system separates families, blocks access to dire social services, and harms documented, undocumented, and liminally legal Latina mothers alike. In this article we examine the ways that immigration laws in the United States constrain Latina immigrants from fulfilling their socially prescribed expectations of motherhood. Increasingly restrictive immigration laws impede mothers and children from migrating together, cause and prolong family separations, allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to conduct worksite and home raids, and make it possible for authorities to enforce record numbers of deportations. Together, these practices instill fear in entire communities. Therefore, we argue that contemporary immigration laws at the federal level – particularly the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996 1 – as well as those at the state and local levels, along with their implementation, are a form of legal violence that not only restricts immigrant women’s ability to mother their children but also brings suffering to these women as mothers. In this article we describe how the current system harms documented and undocumented Latina mothers