“Queer in a Legal Sense”: How US Immigration Law Excluded Homosexuals and What Chicanx Literature Has to Do with It
A study at the intersection of law and literature about LGBT migrants in the United States.
In April 2026, the University of Texas Press published a book in English by American researcher José A. de la Garza Valenzuela titled Queer in a Legal Sense: Brown Citizenship and Other Lawful Fictions. In the context of the long history of disputes over border control and racial politics in North America, this monograph demonstrates how legal documents shaped the history of regulating sexuality and migration, using vague language to make the legal existence of LGBT migrants impossible.
The author is an assistant professor in the Department of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research interests lie at the intersection of literary studies and law.
Valenzuela’s main thesis is built around the concept of “lawful fictions.” These are narratives that emerge not from the text of the laws themselves, but from their interpretation by police, officials, and judges. The state created convenient myths about immigrants to justify mass deportations and erase real human experiences.
For example, the Immigration Act of 1917 prohibited the entry of people with “psychopathic inferiority.” In practice, this vague wording served as a tool to exclude homosexuals. Valenzuela also analyzes landmark court cases, such as Boutilier v. INS in 1967. At that time, the US Supreme Court ordered the deportation of a Canadian who had lived in America for ten years, equating his homosexuality with a psychopathic disorder.
To counter this legal erasure, Valenzuela turns to literature. He analyzes the works of Chicanx authors – Americans of Mexican descent, for whom the gender-neutral ending “x” emphasizes inclusivity. The researcher focuses on the texts of gay writers: John Rechy, Arturo Islas, Rigoberto González, Michael Nava, and Jaime Cortez.
The works of these authors are examined alongside legal precedents and laws determining access to US citizenship. According to Valenzuela, immigration law often relies on heteronormative scenarios, which makes the specific experience of LGBT migrants invisible. It is precisely the semi-autobiographical Chicanx novels that return a voice to those whose history in official archives is reduced merely to arrest records and court decisions. Literature in this case helps reveal the hidden mechanisms of legal regulation, exposing the violence of the American legal system and the absurdity of its demands.
The professional community has highly praised this work: in academic reviews, the book is described as “theoretically sophisticated, methodologically innovative, and ethically sound.” Reviewers note the brilliant argumentation and emphasize that Valenzuela has assembled a crucial literary canon of LGBT Chicanx. This study offers a new perspective on how laws destroyed the lives of marginalized people.