#ImmigrationDetentionSyllabus

Mohammad, oil on canvas. The Refugee Art Project

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 One, “On the Inside: Stories from Immigration Detention,” provides introductory readings and resources for understanding the U.S. immigration detention system and a list of immigration detention story projects.

Understanding the Immigration Detention System

Introductory Readings

  • Canon, Dan, “A System Designed to Make People Disappear,” *Slate, *2017:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html

American Gulag by Mark Dow

- Dow, Mark, [*American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons*](http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php%3Fisbn=9780520246690). University of California Press, 2004. - Hefner, Tony. [*Between the Fences: Before Guantanamo, there was the Port Isabel Service Processing Center*](https://books.google.com/books/about/Between_the_Fences.html?id=QnOZZDHyGokC). Seven Stories Press, 2010. - “[I’m 15 Years Old. Please, President Obama, Set Me Free to Live My Life](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/please-president-obama-set-me-free-to-live-my-life_us_58791e14e4b09281d0eaa781),” *Huffington Post*, 2016. - “[Kapijimpanga: The U.S. is Trying to Deport Me, But You Can’t Deport My Story,”](http://voiceofoc.org/2017/06/kapijimpanga-the-u-s-is-trying-to-deport-me-but-you-cant-deport-my-story/) Voice of OC, 2017. - Ndaula, Malik with Debbie Satyal, “Rafiu’s Story: An American Immigrant Nightmare,” in [*Keeping Out the Other: A Critical Introduction to Immigration Enforcement Today*](https://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Out-Other-Introduction-Immigration/dp/0231141297/ref=sr_1_1%3Fs=books%26ie=UTF8%26qid=1502930248%26sr=1-1%26keywords=keeping+out+the+other). Columbia University Press, 2008.

Use CIVIC’s interactive map of all U.S. immigration detention facilities to locate a facility near you:

[![](/content/images/bb048-1r3c6djpx1rxknc0xjf5nvq.png)](http://www.endisolation.org/resources/immigration-detention/)
[CIVIC Immigration Detention Map and Statistics](http://www.endisolation.org/resources/immigration-detention/)
[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html)

Documentary: Lost in Detention,* PBS* (2011):

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html

Stories from Detention

A List of Immigration Detention Story Projects

CIVIC, Detention Stories Blog IMM Print:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html

CIVIC, Poetry & Art Anthology Call Me Libertad: Poems Between Borders:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html

CIVIC, Detention Stories: Life Inside California’s New Angel Island:

CIVIC, Community Bonds: Life Inside Immigration Detention in Massachusetts:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html

CIVIC and NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic, Prolonged Detention Stories:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html

CIVIC, “Words Beyond Walls” in The Huffington Post:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html

States of Incarceration:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html

CultureStrike, Visions from the Inside 2015 and 2016:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html

Detention Watch Network, Voices from Detention:

Immigrant Defense Project, Indefensible Podcast Series:

American Friends Service Committee, Stories of Detention:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html

Greg Constantine, Seven Doors: Stories of Immigration Detention:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html

A list of migration podcasts curated by Will Coley:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2017/04/ice_detainees_enter_an_unbelievably_cruel_system_designed_to_make_them_disappear.html