From a critical language perspective, the main issues facing education of immigrant populations are the ways in which these populations are segregated as the Other and how educational practices often work to perpetuate a fringe status. In this paper, I draw upon both discursive perspectives on policymaking and pedagogical practices to address the ways in which immigrant multilingual populations are conflated as deficient English Language Learners and how this framing works hegemonically to situate them as an underclass in so-called developed nations. From this frame, I address the agenda facing critical linguistic research that addresses immigration and introduce the articles in this themed issue that provide possible architectures for knowing immigrant populations other than as deficient language learners. (Contains 1 footnote.)