On the Border and Global Refugee Crisis

#ImmigrationDetentionSyllabus

From Laida Lertxundi’s film Sunset Red. Source: CanadianArt

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 Eleven, “On the Border and Global Refugee Crisis,” provides readings, reports, and multimedia resources for placing the U.S. immigration detention system in the broader contexts of border enforcement and a growing global refugee crisis. It also provides further resources for assessing migrant deaths in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, the relationship between climate change and migration, and immigration detention experiences abroad.

Readings

Border Games by Peter Andreas

- Hall, Alexandra. [*Border Watch: Cultures of Immigration, Detention and Control*](http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/B/bo21635376.html). Pluto Press, 2012. - “[International Migrant Crisis Hits a Breaking Point in Baja California](https://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/international-migrant-crisis-hits-a-breaking-point-in-baja-california/)” *Frontera NorteSur*, October, 2016. - Lee, Erika, “[Enforcing the Borders: Chinese Exclusion along the U.S. Borders with Canada and Mexico, 1882–1924](https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/89/1/54/706205/Enforcing-the-Borders-Chinese-Exclusion-along-the?redirectedFrom=PDF),” *Journal of American History* 89 (2002) 54–86. - Maril, Robert Lee. [*Patrolling Chaos: The U.S. Border Patrol in Deep South Texas*](https://books.google.com/books/about/Patrolling_Chaos.html?id=nyRq6rBd47kC)*.* Texas Tech University Press, 2006. - Miller, Todd. [*Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security*](http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100874610&fa=author&person_id=16890). City Lights Publishers, 2014. - “[New Migration: Haitians carve a dangerous 7,000-mile path to the U.S.](http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article103920086.html),” *Miami Herald, *2016. - O’Leary, Anna Ochoa, Colin M. Deeds, and Scott Whiteford, eds. [*Uncharted Terrains: New Directions in Border Research, Methodology, Ethics, and Practice*](http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/Books/bid2454.htm)*.* University of Arizona Press, 2013. - Regan, Margaret. [The Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories from the Arizona Borderlands](https://books.google.com/books?id=sB92MDu_OK8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). Beacon Press, 2010. - Nevins, Joseph, [*Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the “Illegal Alien” and the Remaking of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary*](https://www.amazon.com/Operation-Gatekeeper-Beyond-Illegals-Remaking/dp/0415996945)*.* Routledge, 2002; [*Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid*](https://www.amazon.com/Dying-Live-Immigration-Global-Apartheid/dp/0872864863/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503250801&sr=1-1&keywords=dying+to+live+nevins). City Lights Books, 2008; “Policing Mobility: Maintaining Global Apartheid from South Africa to the United States” 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. - Sorrentino, Joseph, “[How the U.S. ‘Solved’ the Central American Migrant Crisis](https://imm-print.com/how-the-u-s-solved-the-central-american-migrant-crisis-2f63ac2962),” *IMM Print, *May 2017. - Tamez, Margo, “The Texas-Mexico Border Wall and Ndé Memory: Confronting Genocide and State Criminality, beyond the Guise of ‘Impunity,’” 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. - “[The Other Migrant Crisis: Thousands Risk Journey Through Latin America](http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/19/americas/costa-rica-migration/index.html),” *CNN.com*, December 2016.

Photo Essay: “A First Look Inside Border Patrol’s ‘Iceboxes,’” *The Atlantic, *2016.

Poetry: Daniel Borzutsky, The Performance of Becoming Human

Podcast: “Peter Andreas: Trump’s Wall is Already Built,” The Dig

Undocumented Migration Project, University of Michigan

Visualizing the US-Mexico Border, The Intercept:

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/26/best-of-luck-with-the-wall/

National Border Patrol Museum Oral Histories:

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/26/best-of-luck-with-the-wall/

by Jess X Chen, from “Visions of the Inside 2015” by CultureStrike

### Reports

Crossing the Line: U.S. Border Agents Illegally Reject Asylum Seekers, Human Rights First, May 2017.

Record of Abuse: Lawlessness and Impunity in Border Patrol’s Interior Enforcement Operations, ACLU, October 2015. En Español

“You Don’t Have Rights Here”: US Border Screening and Returns of Central Americans to Risk of Serious Harm, Human Rights Watch, October 2014.

Documented Failures: The Consequences of Immigration Policy on the US-Mexico Border, Kino Border Initiative and Jesuit Refugee Service USA, 2013.

The “Hieleras”: A Report on Human & Civil Rights Abuses Committed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Americans for Immigrant Justice, 2013.

Humanitarian Crisis: Migrant Deaths at the US-Mexico Border, ACLU of San Diego and Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights, 2009.

Border Deaths

Fernando Marti, 2015. CultureStrike Climate Justice

- “[Death as ‘Deterrence’: The Desert as a Weapon](http://afgj.org/death-as-deterrence-the-desert-as-a-weapon).” Alliance for Global Justice. - deBuys, William, “High Blue: The Great Downshift of Dryness” and “Apache Pass: Crossing the Line,” in [*A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest*](http://williamdebuys.com/books/great-aridness/)*. *Oxford University Press, 2013. - De León, Jason. [*The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail*](https://books.google.com/books?id=-xBiCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false)*. *Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015*.*[Book Review](https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2016/10/book-review-land) - Esbach, Karl, Jacqueline Hagan, and Nestor Rodríguez. “Deaths During Undocumented Migration: Trends and Policy Implications in the New Era of Homeland Security.” *In Defense of the Alien,* vol. 26 (2003) 37–52.

The Missing Migrant Project by Coalicíon de Derechos Humanos and the Colibri Center for Human Rights:

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/26/best-of-luck-with-the-wall/

[![](/content/images/30d7c-1tdxe9-pxthyqseo6336emw.png)](http://www.colibricenter.org)
No More Deaths:

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/26/best-of-luck-with-the-wall/

Photo Essay: The Things They Left Behind, Texas Observer

Climate Refugees

Climate Justice project, CultureStrike

Films

Exodus,* PBS
Children of Syria,**PBS Frontline
*Welcome to Canada, *The Atlantic
*Climate Refugees (2015):

Global Detention

by Solara Shiha. Source: TBD, Art is Back

#### Reports

Stories

Surviving Detention: Refugee Art Project (Australia):

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/26/best-of-luck-with-the-wall/

Behind the Wire (Australia):

Detained Voices (UK):

[![](/content/images/72c22-1-hq8sctrj2lp3tbodfatag.png)](https://detainedvoices.com)
[Nowhere People](http://www.nowherepeople.org/main) global refugee stories:

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/26/best-of-luck-with-the-wall/

Against All Odds video game, UNHCR