The Migrant's Jail : An American History of Mass Incarceration.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nofil, Brianna.

Series:

Politics and Society in Modern America Series

Politics and Society in Modern America Series ; v.145

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Detention of persons--United States--History--20th century.

Detention of persons.

Immigrants--Law and legislation--United States--History--20th century.

Immigrants.

Immigrants--United States--Law and legislation--History--20th century.

Jails--United States--States--Finance--History--20th century.

Jails.

Noncitizen detention centers--United States--History--20th century.

Noncitizen detention centers.

Noncitizens--Law and legislation--United States--History--20th century.

Noncitizens.

Noncitizens--United States--Law and legislation--History--20th century.

Prisons--United States--History--20th century.

Prisons.

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

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (337 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2024.

Summary:

"This book is a history of a century of migrant detention, showing how immigration bureaucracy and the criminal justice system gave rise to this peculiar form of imprisonment in the United States. Historian Brianna Nofil tracks the political evolution of immigration policy but also follows the money, uncovering the network of individuals, municipalities, and private corporations that profited from immigrant detention. From the incarceration of Chinese migrants in the furthest reaches of New York at the turn of the twentieth century to the jailing of Caribbean asylum seekers in Gulf South lockups in the 1980s and 90s, Detention Power uncovers how the criminal justice system and immigration law enforcement have long collaborated, shared resources, and pursued a common project of incarceration and racial control. As Nofil shows, sheriffs and city commissions throughout the U.S. capitalized on contracts with the immigration service by expanding their jails and, in some cases, building separate "migrant jails" to secure federal detainees, effectively transforming incarcerated migrants into local commodities. Nofil's archives include records of district courts, presidential administrations, the immigration service, and legal aid groups, as well as overlooked local sources from communities at the heart of the detention business. At stake is the history of how immigrants who have been unwanted as citizens and workers were nevertheless coveted for their value in a "detention market" that brought federal money to local communities. Nofil is attentive to the backlash this form of imprisonment sparked even as she shows the longstanding role of immigration policing in the building of our mass incarceration society"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Policing and Profits in New York’s Chinese Jails

2 Negotiating Freedom in an Era of Exclusion

3 A Kaleidoscopic Affair: Rethinking the Progressive-Era Migrant Jail

4 “A Concentration Camp of Their Own”: Detention in and after War

5 Disorderly Expansion: Resisting Detention in the 1970s

6 South Florida and the Local Politics of the Criminal Alien

7 Flexible Space and the Weaponization of Transfers

8 Sheriffs, Corporations, and the Making of a Late Twentieth-Century Jail Bed Economy

Epilogue: Getting ICE out of Jails

Archives and Manuscript Collections

Appendix

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780691237039

0691237034

OCLC:

1452601069