Itable to people of all backgrounds. However, since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. government adopted stringent policies to control and regulate immigrants and foreign visitors (Jonas and Tactaquin 2004). As a result, undocumented Latino migrants have become a primary symbol for how porous and poorly defended the national border is. Images of undocumented Latinos fuel a widespread fear that the U.S. is being attacked by foreigners. This popular national reaction is not new (Chavez 2008), and has resulted in an intensification of surveillance, regulation, and control of Latino migrants. As such, states, cities, and counties throughout the U.S. have adopted policies and measures to restrict, incarcerate, fine, or reprimand Latino migrants and those who assist them (Quesada 2011b). By contrast, San Francisco and Berkeley have remained sanctuary cities (Mancini 2013), albeit under federal duress for maintaining policies of local noncompliance to detaining, informing, and handing over individuals to the Department of Homeland Securities Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE). In both cities the police have been instructed neither to comply nor implement federal immigration policy and procedures toward those suspected to be undocumented.Negotiating discriminationDiscrimination involves the injurious treatment of an order R1503 individual or group based on the act of marking differences and hence precipitating different treatment of others by imposing formal and informal restrictions of all sorts (Giddiness et al. 2009). Indeed, “any distinguishing characteristic, whether social or biological, can serve as pretext for discrimination, and thus as a cause of suffering” (Farmer 1997:278). The recipients of injurious treatment are often structurally vulnerable (Quesada, Hart and Bourgois 2011; Horton 2004) to a whole variety of negative sanctions. The set of difficulties Latino day S28463MedChemExpress S28463 laborers encounter vary depending on their labor niche and the locales where they live andCity Soc (Wash). Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 April 01.Quesada et al.Pagework. For instance, day laborers’ perceptions of whether or not they are locally socially accepted or excluded influence important life decisions such as whether or not to seek public social services, health care, or cooperate with the police. Undocumented Latino day laborers are constantly maneuvering to offset the effects of discrimination by subtly or overtly negotiating–behaviorally and socially–the discrimination they encounter. In doing so, they enter into constant tacit negotiations, actual and symbolic, with the world around them. Negotiation for undocumented Latinos refers to a dialogic engagement with the world that involves decisions, actions, and thought meant to resolve and overcome daily adversities and gain an advantage, understanding, or agreement of a situation or condition one encounters. To be undocumented is to be in a constant antagonistic de jure relationship with the state and dominant society. As such, negotiation unselfconsciously contends with trying to assert other forms of being and to be recognized as a worthy human being that is not politically and institutionally discredited (Bhabha 1994). Latino day laborers have no choice but to constantly negotiate. They must make instant decisions about whether the person in the car soliciting work is a good employer or not. They must find an affordable place to stay without revealing that they do not have legal pa.Itable to people of all backgrounds. However, since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. government adopted stringent policies to control and regulate immigrants and foreign visitors (Jonas and Tactaquin 2004). As a result, undocumented Latino migrants have become a primary symbol for how porous and poorly defended the national border is. Images of undocumented Latinos fuel a widespread fear that the U.S. is being attacked by foreigners. This popular national reaction is not new (Chavez 2008), and has resulted in an intensification of surveillance, regulation, and control of Latino migrants. As such, states, cities, and counties throughout the U.S. have adopted policies and measures to restrict, incarcerate, fine, or reprimand Latino migrants and those who assist them (Quesada 2011b). By contrast, San Francisco and Berkeley have remained sanctuary cities (Mancini 2013), albeit under federal duress for maintaining policies of local noncompliance to detaining, informing, and handing over individuals to the Department of Homeland Securities Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE). In both cities the police have been instructed neither to comply nor implement federal immigration policy and procedures toward those suspected to be undocumented.Negotiating discriminationDiscrimination involves the injurious treatment of an individual or group based on the act of marking differences and hence precipitating different treatment of others by imposing formal and informal restrictions of all sorts (Giddiness et al. 2009). Indeed, “any distinguishing characteristic, whether social or biological, can serve as pretext for discrimination, and thus as a cause of suffering” (Farmer 1997:278). The recipients of injurious treatment are often structurally vulnerable (Quesada, Hart and Bourgois 2011; Horton 2004) to a whole variety of negative sanctions. The set of difficulties Latino day laborers encounter vary depending on their labor niche and the locales where they live andCity Soc (Wash). Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 April 01.Quesada et al.Pagework. For instance, day laborers’ perceptions of whether or not they are locally socially accepted or excluded influence important life decisions such as whether or not to seek public social services, health care, or cooperate with the police. Undocumented Latino day laborers are constantly maneuvering to offset the effects of discrimination by subtly or overtly negotiating–behaviorally and socially–the discrimination they encounter. In doing so, they enter into constant tacit negotiations, actual and symbolic, with the world around them. Negotiation for undocumented Latinos refers to a dialogic engagement with the world that involves decisions, actions, and thought meant to resolve and overcome daily adversities and gain an advantage, understanding, or agreement of a situation or condition one encounters. To be undocumented is to be in a constant antagonistic de jure relationship with the state and dominant society. As such, negotiation unselfconsciously contends with trying to assert other forms of being and to be recognized as a worthy human being that is not politically and institutionally discredited (Bhabha 1994). Latino day laborers have no choice but to constantly negotiate. They must make instant decisions about whether the person in the car soliciting work is a good employer or not. They must find an affordable place to stay without revealing that they do not have legal pa.