Sarah Tosh

Sarah Tosh joined the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice in 2019 after receiving her PhD in Sociology from the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her research examines the punitive intersections between drug, crime, and immigration policy in the United States; and she teaches courses on inequality in criminal justice, migration and deportation, drugs and society, the sociology of deviance, and criminal justice research methods. Dr. Tosh’s book, The Immigration Law Death Penalty: Aggravated Felonies, Deportation, and Legal Resistance was published in 2023 by New York University Press. From 2021-2023, she was the co-PI of a National Science Foundation-funded study of “The Criminal Deportation Pipeline in New York City.”

Publications:

• Sarah Tosh. 2023. The Immigration Law Death Penalty: Aggravated Felonies, Deportation, and Legal Resistance. New York: New York University Press.

• David Brotherton and Sarah Tosh. 2025. “The Dialectics of Migration: Social Bulimia and the De-portation Pipeline in New York City.” The British Journal of Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azaf010

• Lorena Avila and Sarah Tosh. 2024. “The Institutional Hearing Program and the Incarceration-to-Deportation-Pipeline.” Critical Criminology 32(2), pp. 217-233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-024-09783-3

Media Appearances/Speaking Engagements:

• “Mandatory Detention for Criminal Convictions and the Growth of the Modern Deportation Regime.” Elizabeth Detention Center: Past, Present, & Future Symposium. Rutgers University, New Brunswick. October 27, 2023

• 2024 “Abolishing Immigration Detention: A Teach-In on the Elizabeth New Jersey Detention Center.” Princeton University, March 22.

• 2024 “Finding Common Ground: Building Bridges on Immigration Law Ahead of the Election.” Rutgers Law School, October 16.

Previous Organizations:

• The Graduate Center, CUNY

• National Science Foundation

• New York University

Accomplishments:

• Book: Sarah Tosh. 2023. The Immigration Law Death Penalty: Aggravated Felonies, Deportation, and Legal Resistance. New York University Press.

• NSF Grant: 2021-2023 National Science Foundation. Division of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, Law & Science Program. “Collaborative Research: The Criminal Deportation Pipeline in New York City.” Co-PI with David Brotherton, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. ($371,967)

• Rutgers-Camden Chancellor's Grant: 2023-2024 Chancellor's Grant for Assistant Professor Research Development, Rutgers University-Camden. “‘Crimmigration’ Advisal in Public Defense Offices: A Comparative Study of Immigrant-Receiving Cities in the United States.” ($19,885)

Upcoming projects:

• Sarah Tosh, Lorena Avila, and Nick Rodrigo. “Social Bulimia and the Deportation of Incarcerated Non-Citizens from the Caribbean.”

• Edwin Grimsley and Sarah Tosh. “Broken Windows Policing and the Deportation of Black Immigrants: The Case of New York City.”

• Sarah Tosh, David Brotherton, Nick Rodrigo, and Edwin Grimsley, Eds. The Criminalization-to-Deportation Pipeline in New York City and Beyond (edited volume).

My work examines the reproduction of racial and social inequality through intertwining systems of drug, criminal justice, and immigration policy.

Book talk on The Immigration Law Death Penalty: Aggravated Felonies, Deportation, and Legal Resistance (NYU Press, 2023) by Dr. Sarah Tosh

https://globalracialjustice.rutgers.edu/event/immigration-law-death-penalty-aggravated-felonies-deportation-and-legal-resistance