(Im)migration and Refugee History, Rights & Countering Xenophobia

Living in a mixed-status immigrant family might mean that your grandmother could be deported at any moment, your son could be arrested at work, or your mother's deportation hearing is postponed--again. Such uncertainty and fear are the reality of life for mixed-status families--those that include both undocumented immigrants and US citizens. In Contested Americans, Cassaundra Rodriguez explores how members of mixed-status families experience and articulate belonging in the United States. The sixteen million people in the US who fall under this classification share the fear of a family member's possible deportation or the anxiety of leaving behind a child or elderly relative. Rodriguez highlights how different members of the same mixed-status families mediate undocumented statuses while maintaining the collective whole of a family. For many young adults, this may mean negotiating the sponsorship of their immigrant parents, and for the parents, planning for the emotional, physical, and financial well-being of their children in case of deportation. Contested Americans is a timely book, filled with vivid storytelling, that shows how immigration policies, racism, and privilege collide in the backdrop of the lives of millions of mixed-status families--Publisher's description.

"In recent years, dozens of counties in North Carolina have partnered with federal law enforcement in the criminalization of immigration-what many have dubbed 'crimmigration.' Southern border enforcement still monopolizes the national immigration debate, but immigration enforcement has become common within the United States as well. While Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations are a major part of American immigration enforcement, Felicia Arriaga maintains that ICE relies on an already well-established system-the use of local law enforcement and local governments to identify, incarcerate, and deport undocumented immigrants"--

"After fleeing homophobia and threats to her life in her native El Salvador, 'Carla' was detained for two years inside the Buffalo Federal Detention Center. Her letters provide a powerful and unique account of a queer woman's experience inside America's asylum system. Letters from Inside a US Detention Centre reconstructs Carla's story from the correspondence between Carla and Jane Juffer, a professor at Cornell University, and from excerpts from the legal decisions made while she was being held in immigration detention. Contextualised with explanation and analysis of detention in the United States, the book examines how detention exacerbates the trauma many migrants experience and becomes another site of fear, intimidation, and uncertainty. Carla's narrative is a powerful story, and one that illustrates grievous injustices in the U.S. immigration and asylum system. The book will be of immense value to immigration activists and scholars alike, especially in feminist studies, queer studies, and those studying the intersections of prisons and detention centres"--

Listen to this episode from Radio Cachimbona on Spotify. Yvette Borja interviews University of Arizona Law School Professor Shefali Milczarek-Desai to discuss two of her recent/upcoming papers about the intersection of immigrants' rights and workers' rights. They discuss the ineffectiveness of Arizona's 2017 paid sick leave law, especially amongst im/migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the tension between immigration enforcement and workers' rights that the US legal system creates, and how community, instead of individual, well-being can lead us towards a future where paid sick leave is actually an effective tool for public health. Read Shefali's articles discussed in the episode here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4513297 and https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4042097To support the podcast, become a monthly patron and get access to the #litreview online book club: https://patreon.com/radiocachimbona?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_linkFollow @radiocachimbona on Instragram, Twitter, and Facebook

A bill introduced this week by Congressman Raúl Grijalva and other lawmakers aims to provide federal protections for workers exposed to extreme heat.

"After fleeing homophobia and threats to her life in her native El Salvador, 'Carla' was detained for two years inside the Buffalo Federal Detention Center. Her letters provide a powerful and unique account of a queer woman's experience inside America's asylum system. Letters from Inside a US Detention Centre reconstructs Carla's story from the correspondence between Carla and Jane Juffer, a professor at Cornell University, and from excerpts from the legal decisions made while she was being held in immigration detention. Contextualised with explanation and analysis of detention in the United States, the book examines how detention exacerbates the trauma many migrants experience and becomes another site of fear, intimidation, and uncertainty. Carla's narrative is a powerful story, and one that illustrates grievous injustices in the U.S. immigration and asylum system. The book will be of immense value to immigration activists and scholars alike, especially in feminist studies, queer studies, and those studying the intersections of prisons and detention centres"--

"America's Arab Refugees is a timely examination of the world's worst refugee crisis since World War II. Tracing the history of Middle Eastern wars - especially the U.S. military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan - to the current refugee crisis, Marcia C. Inhorn examines how refugees fare once resettled in America. In the U.S., Arabs are challenged by discrimination, poverty, and various forms of vulnerability. Inhorn shines a spotlight on the plight of resettled Arab refugees in the ethnic enclave community of "Arab Detroit," Michigan. Sharing in the poverty of Detroit's Black communities, Arab refugees struggle to find employment and to rebuild their lives. Iraqi and Lebanese refugees who have fled from war zones also face several serious health challenges. Uncovering the depths of these challenges, Inhorn's ethnography follows refugees in Detroit suffering reproductive health problems requiring in vitro fertilization (IVF). Without money to afford costly IVF services, Arab refugee couples are caught in a state of "reproductive exile"--Unable to return to war-torn countries with shattered healthcare systems, but unable to access affordable IVF services in America. America's Arab Refugees questions America's responsibility for, and commitment to, Arab refugees, mounting a powerful call to end the violence in the Middle East, assist war orphans and uprooted families, take better care of Arab refugees in this country, and provide them with equitable and affordable healthcare services." -- Amazon.com.

"In Disappearing Rooms Michelle Castaneda lays bare the criminalization of race enacted every day in U.S. immigration courts and detention centers. She uses a performance studies perspective to show how the theatrical concept of mise-en-scene offers new insights about immigration law and the absurdist dynamics of carceral space. Castaneda draws upon her experiences in immigration trials as an interpreter and courtroom companion to analyze the scenography-lighting, staging, framing, gesture, speech, and choreography-of specific rooms within the immigration enforcement system. Castaneda's ethnographies of proceedings in a "removal" office in New York City, a detention center courtroom in Texas, and an asylum office in the Northeast reveal the depersonalizing violence enacted in immigration law through its embodied, ritualistic, and affective components. She shows how the creative practices of detained and disappeared peoples living under acute duress imagine the abolition of detention and borders. Featuring original illustrations by artist-journalist, Molly Crabapple, Disappearing Rooms shines a light into otherwise hidden spaces of law within the contemporary deportation regime. Duke University of Press Scholars of Color First Book Award Recipient"--

"A new book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer about the twenty-first-century Latino experience and identity"--;"Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States. Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino" assembles the Pulitzer Prize winner Hector Tobar's personal experiences as the son of Guatemalan immigrants and the stories told to him by his Latinx students to offer a spirited rebuke to racist ideas about Latino people. Our Migrant Souls decodes the meaning of "Latino" as a racial and ethnic identity in the modern United States, and seeks to give voice to the angst and anger of young Latino people who have seen Latinidad transformed into hateful tropes about "illegals" and have faced insults, harassment, and division based on white insecurities and economic exploitation.

"Immigration presented a constitutional and political problem in the nineteenth-century United States. Until the 1870s, the federal government played only a very limited role in regulating immigration. The states controlled mobility within and across their borders and set their own rules for community membership. This book demonstrates how the existence, abolition, and legacies of slavery shaped immigration policy as it moved from the local to the national level. Throughout the antebellum era, defenders of slavery feared that if Congress had power to control immigration, it could also regulate the movement of free black people and perhaps even the interstate slave trade. The Civil War removed the political and constitutional obstacles to a national immigration policy. Admission remained the norm for European immigrants until the 1920s, but Chinese immigrants fell into a different category. Starting in the 1870s, the federal government excluded Chinese laborers, deploying techniques of registration, punishment, and deportation first used against free black people in the antebellum South. To justify these measures, the Supreme Court ruled that authority over immigration was inherent in national sovereignty and required no constitutional justification. The federal government continues to control admissions and exclusions today, while the states play a double-edged role in regulating immigrants' lives, depending on their politics and location. Some monitor and punish immigrants; others offer sanctuary and refuse to act as agents of federal law enforcement. By examining the history of immigration in a slaveholding republic, this book reveals the tangled origins of border control, incarceration, deportation, and ongoing tensions between local and federal authority in the United States"--

The United States entered a new era with the end of the pandemic-era Title 42 expulsions policy. The government’s hopes of maintaining order at the U.S.-Mexico border post-Title 42 may be complicated by factors including authorities’ limited capacity, ongoing litigation, and cooperation from other countries. This article reviews the Biden administration's changing border policies and possible challenges ahead.

The death in Border Patrol custody of an 8-year-old Panamanian girl is the second child migrant fatality in two weeks under government supervision, raising questions about how prepared authorities are to address medical emergencies of people arriving after an often-exhausting journey. A rush to the border before pandemic-related asylum limits known as Title 42 expired fueled a sharp increase of people in custody. The growing presence of families and unaccompanied children over the last decade presents authorities with enormous responsibilities for medical care. At least six children died in custody during a roughly year-long period from 2018 to 2019.

The film, about migrants going missing in rural Texas, was co-directed by adjunct instructor Lisa Molomot and edited by associate professor Jacob Bricca. It won a Peabody Award in the documentary

The Biden administration is making plans to send an additional 1,500 active-duty troops to the US-Mexico border in anticipation of an influx of migrants when the Title 42 public health authority expires next week, sources familiar with the planning told CNN.

A U.S. homeland security adviser spent Tuesday meeting with Mexico’s president and other top officials, emerging with a five-point plan.

We created a rigorous empirical account of laws protecting the human rights of all migrants and the cross-national implementation that helps them flourish.Now you can explore it.

Recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) settled charges of national origin discrimination and retaliation against Total...

The United States resettles thousands of refugees worldwide to provide families a safe place to live. The U.S. government works with approved agencies to encourage refugees to become self-reliant in their new American homes. Learn more about the U.S. assistance programs and services to help refugees.

First part of a blog post detailing the history of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

This ACLU research report, No Fighting Chance: ICE's Denial of Access to Counsel in U.S. Immigration Detention Centers, provides the first comprehensive study of the barriers to access to counsel in

I've been in the States for over three months now. This was my third emigration. The first was from Canada to the US when I was little. Then back to Canada, and now back to the US. The Canadian move was easy for me but I had to learn a lot about immigration law to…

The latest stories on the Trump administration's policy to separate immigrant parents from their children at border crossings.

In keeping with our commitment to promoting open and equal access to justice for all, we at the Harris County Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library have assembled a list of online resources to help answer questions regarding the United States immigration process. Some of the resources provided are availa

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Border Patrol agents in Arizona have confiscated the turbans of dozens of Sikh men seeking asylum in the US, violating their civil rights and government policies, the ACLU says in a letter calling for an end to the practice.

By Michael McArthur The final day of the 2022 IALL Annual Course opened with an eye-opening review of U.S. immigration law and policy, presented by the founding director of Stanford’s Immigrants’ R…

The Covid-19 pandemic has spotlighted the crisis low wage immigrant and migrant (“im/migrant”) workers face when caught between the century-long collision betwe

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Welcome to the Global Detention Project's blog tracking the latest developments in migration-related detention practices and policies, urgent appeals, and emerging situations across the globe.

The fight for Black women’s equal pay must address race and gender biases that erode Black women’s wages and undermine their ability to thrive.