Detain and deport : the chaotic U.S. immigration enforcement regime / Nancy Hiemstra.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hiemstra, Nancy, author.

Series:

Geographies of justice and social transformation.

Geographies of justice and social transformation

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Noncitizens--Government policy--United States.

Noncitizens.

Detention of persons--Government policy--United States.

Detention of persons.

Deportation--Government policy--United States.

Deportation.

Illegal immigration.

United States--Emigration and immigration--Government policy.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (201 pages).

Place of Publication:

Athens, Georgia : The University of Georgia Press, 2019.

Summary:

Detention and deportation have become keystones of immigration and border enforcement policies around the world. The United States has built a massive immigration enforcement system that detains and deports more people than any other country. This system is grounded in the assumptions that national borders are territorially fixed and controllable, and that detention and deportation bolster security and deter migration. Nancy Hiemstra's multisited ethnographic research pairs investigation of enforcement practices in the United States with an exploration into conditions migrants face in one country of origin: Ecuador. Detain and Deport's transnational approach reveals how the U.S. immigration enforcement system's chaotic organization and operation distracts from the mismatch between these assumptions and actual outcomes. Hiemstra draws on the experiences of detained and deported migrants, as well as their families and communities in Ecuador, to show convincingly that instead of deterring migrants and improving national security, detention and deportation generate insecurities and forge lasting connections across territorial borders. At the same time, the system's chaos works to curtail rights and maintain detained migrants on a narrow path to deportation. Hiemstra argues that in addition to the racialized ideas of national identity and a fluctuating dependence on immigrant labor that have long propelled U.S. immigration policies, the contemporary emphasis on detention and deportation is fueled by the influence of people and entities that profit from them.

Contents:

A transnational ethnography of U.S. detention and deportation

Ecuadorian migration, U.S. policy, and human smuggling

The making of a massive system

Ordering chaos : system organization and operation

The "peculiar" advantages of chaos : detainees' experiences

"You don't know how I suffer, waiting every day" : reverberations of detention in Ecuador

"There is no other way" : postdeportation insecurities and continued migration

Ordering chaos, opening space

Appendix A. Interviewed functionaries

Appendix B. Interviewed deportees, basic data

Appendix C. Deportee interview question guide.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780820354644

0820354643

OCLC:

1088407625