On Politics and Law

#ImmigrationDetentionSyllabus

by Marcela Castro. Source: CIVIC

The **#ImmigrationDetentionSyllabus** is a sixteen-part series of readings and tools to support education, research, and action to dissect and dismantle the U.S. immigration detention system. The syllabus is organized by theme and curated by historian [Tina Shull](https://medium.com/u/6e34ba3479d9) at [Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC)](http://endisolation.org).

Part Six, “On Politics and Law” provides readings, reports, and multimedia resources for understanding immigration law, the politics behind the immigration debate, and exploring civil rights abuses in detention.

Readings

Undocumented by Aviva Chomsky

- Chomsky, Aviva. [*Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal*](https://www.amazon.com/Undocumented-How-Immigration-Became-Illegal/dp/0807001678). Beacon Press, 2014. [Book Review](http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1139&context=yhrdlj) - Das, Alina, “[Immigration Detention: Information Gaps and Institutional Barriers to Reform](http://its.law.nyu.edu/faculty/profiles/representiveFiles/das%20-immigrationdetention_86444638-C014-CB12-92C935CFCD4CF572.pdf),” 80 *University of Chicago Law Review* 137 (2013). - Dunaway, Sarah E. “[¿Dónde Está La Biblioteca? It’s a Damn Shame: Outdated, Inadequate, and Nonexistent Law Libraries in Immigrant Detention Facilities](http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0270319X.2017.1312178?journalCode=wlrs20).” *Legal Reference Services Quarterly* 36 (2017) 1–33. - Fernandez, Deepa, “The End of Asylum as We Know It?” in [*Targeted: Homeland Security and the Business of Immigration*](https://www.amazon.com/Targeted-Homeland-Security-Business-Immigration/dp/1583227288/ref=sr_1_1%3Fs=books%26ie=UTF8%26qid=1502933382%26sr=1-1%26keywords=targeted%3A+homeland+security). Seven Stories Press, 2007. - Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. [*Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California*](http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520242012)*.* University of California Press, 2007. - Greene, Judith A., Bethany Carson, and Andrea Black. [*Indefensible: A Decade of Mass Incarceration of Migrants Prosecuted for Crossing the Border*](https://grassrootsleadership.org/sites/default/files/reports/indefensible_book_web.pdf). Grassroots Leadership and Justice Strategies, 2016.

Reform without Justice by Alfonso Gonzales

- Gonzales, Alfonso. [*Reform Without Justice: Latino Migrant Politics and the Homeland Security State*](https://www.amazon.com/Reform-Without-Justice-Politics-Homeland/dp/0199342938/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_ftcp_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0199342938&pd_rd_r=M2E626ZSNG0900CCKAN7&pd_rd_w=OosUY&pd_rd_wg=kXNuU&pf_rd_i=desktop-rhf&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd). Oxford University Press, 2014. - Hafetz, Jonathan. [*Habeas Corpus after 9/11: Confronting America’s New Global Detention System*](http://www.powells.com/partner/37407/biblio/9780814737033?p_isbn). NYU Press, 2011. - Hinton, Elizabeth Kai. [*From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America*](http://www.powells.com/partner/37407/biblio/9780674737235?p_isbn). Harvard University Press, 2016. - Janssen, Volker, “Sunbelt Lock-Up: Where the Suburbs Met the Supermax,” in [*Sunbelt Rising: The Politics of Place, Space, and Region*](http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/toc/14873.html). The University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. - Legomsky, Stephen H., “[The USA and the Caribbean Interdiction Program](https://academic.oup.com/ijrl/article-abstract/18/3-4/677/1537973/The-USA-and-the-Caribbean-Interdiction-Program?redirectedFrom=PDF),” *International Journal of Refugee Law* 18, vol. 3–4 (2006): 677-95.

From Deportation to Prison by Patrisia Macías-Rojas

- Macías-Rojas, Patrisia. [*From Deportation to Prison: The Politics of Immigration Enforcement in Post-Civil Rights America*](https://books.google.com/books%3Fid=KwPvCwAAQBAJ%26printsec=frontcover%26source=gbs_ge_summary_r%26cad=0%23v=onepage%26q%26f=false)*. *New York University Press, 2016. - Maddux, Thomas R. “[Ronald Reagan and the Task Force on Immigration, 1981.”](http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/phr.2005.74.2.195?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents)*Pacific Historial Review *74: 2 (2005): 196-236. - Massey, Douglas S. and Karen A. Pren, “[Unintended Consequences of US Immigration Policy: Explaining the Post-1965 Surge from Latin America](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Douglas+S.+Massey+and+Karen+A.+Pren%2C+%E2%80%9CUnintended+Consequences+of+US+Immigration+Policy%3A+Explaining+the+Post-1965+Surge+from+Latin+America%2C%E2%80%9D+Population+and+Development+Review%2C+Vol.+38%2C+No.+1+%28March+2012%29%3A+1-29&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C24),” *Population and Development Review *38 (2012): 1–29. - Mears, Daniel P. “[The Immigration-Crime Nexus: Toward an Analytic Framework for Assessing and Guiding Theory, Research, and Policy](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1525/sop.2001.44.1.1).” *Sociological Perspectives *44:1 (2001): 1–19. - Murakawa, Naomi. [*First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America*](https://www.worldcat.org/title/first-civil-right-how-liberals-built-prison-america/oclc/866619825&referer=brief_results).**Oxford University Press, 2014. - Nessel, Lori A. “[Externalized Borders and the Invisible Refugee](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228188120_Externalized_Borders_and_the_Invisible_Refugee),” *Columbia Human Rights Law Review* (2009): 625–629. - Perkinson, Robert. [*Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire*](https://books.google.com/books/about/Texas_Tough.html?id=HOxmcfIopugC). Macmillan, 2010. - Santa Ana, Otto. [*Arizona Firestorm: Global Immigration Realities, National Media, and Provincial Politics*](https://www.amazon.com/Arizona-Firestorm-Immigration-Realities-Provincial/dp/1442214155). Rowman & Littlefield, 2012. - Stenken, Christopher, “Detention and Access to Justice: A Florence Project Case Study,” in [*Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders, and Global Crisis*](https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Walls-Cages-Geographies-Transformation/dp/0820344125/ref=sr_1_1%3Fs=books%26ie=UTF8%26qid=1502923438%26sr=1-1%26keywords=beyond+cages+and+walls). University of Georgia Press, 2012. - Varsanyi, Monica W., “Fighting for the Vote: The Struggle Against Felon and Immigrant Disenfranchisement,” in [*Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders, and Global Crisis*](https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Walls-Cages-Geographies-Transformation/dp/0820344125/ref=sr_1_1%3Fs=books%26ie=UTF8%26qid=1502923438%26sr=1-1%26keywords=beyond+cages+and+walls). University of Georgia Press, 2012.

Detained by Michael Welch

- Welch, Michael. [*Detained: Immigration Laws and the Expanding I.N.S. Jail Complex*](http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1408_reg.html)*. *Temple University Press, 2002. - Wheatley, Christine, “[Punishing Immigrants: The Unconstitutional Practice of Punitive Immigration Detention in the United States](https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2015/05/punishing),” *Border Criminologies*, May 2015. - Wilsher, Daniel. *Immigration Detention: Law, History, Politics. *Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Reports

Dismantle, Don’t Expand: The 1996 Laws, The Immigrant Justice Network and NYU School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, 2017:

http://immigrantjusticenetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IJN1996LawsReport_Final.pdf

With Liberty and Justice for All: The State of Civil Rights at U.S. Immigration Detention Centers, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2015.

Restoring Due Process: How Bond Hearings Under Rodriguez v. Robbins Have Helped End Arbitrary Immigration Detention, ACLU, 2014.

A Costly Move: Far and Frequent Transfers Impede Hearings for Immigrant Detainees in the United States, Human Rights Watch, June 2011.

Abbas al-Aboudi, “Waiting,” ink on paper. The Refugee Art Project

### Blogs

Bender’s Immigration Bulletin

Immigration Impact

Immigrant Rights and Detention, ACLU

Crimmigration

Justice Strategies

Operation Streamline Watch, Grassroots Leadership

Chucha Marquez, from CultureStrike’s “Visions from the Inside” 2015

### In the News

CIVIC Files Civil Rights Complaint on Rising Sexual Abuse in U.S. Immigration Detention Facilities,” CIVIC, April 2017.

Last chance this term for Supreme Court to stand up for immigrants in detention,” The Hill, 2016.

Black Lives Matter Co-Founder: The Immigration Challenge No One is Talking About,” TIME, 2016.

20 years ago, asylum seekers were not automatically put in immigration detention,” PRI, 2016.

What it’s like to represent detained immigrants in overloaded courts — day in and day out,” PRI, 2016.

In New York City, lawyers make all the difference for immigrant detainees facing deportation,” PRI, 2016.

Stateless: The Ultimate Legal Limbo,” Newsweek, 2015.

The Refugee Tragedy in Our Own Backyard,” Los Angeles Times, 2015.

For Detained Immigrants, A Too-long Wait for Justice,” Los Angeles Times, 2014.

More Resources

TRAC’s New Web Tool Maps Cases Pending in Immigration Court

Lost in Detention,* PBS* (2011):

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/lost-in-detention/

Know Your Rights to Defend Your Rights / Conoche tus Derechos para Defender dus Derechos, by Mijente

Image Credit: Mijente

Podcast: [Unheard Voices: The Other Side of the Immigration Debate](http://www.harvardhispanic.org/policy-podcast-unheard-voices-panel/) by Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy:

Podcast Series: Indefensible by the Immigrant Defense Project:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/lost-in-detention/

ICED-I Can End Deportation (video game that teaches players about current immigration laws about detention and deportation)

Annotated Detainer Form 2017 and Annotated ICE Administrative Warrants 2017, Immigrant Legal Resource Center

Know Your Rights, Undocumedia:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/lost-in-detention/

Political Cartoons in U.S. History. Library of Congress.