Keeping Out the Other: A Critical Introduction to Immigration Enforcement Today

by David C. Brotherton , Ph.D., Philip Kretsedemas

Overview

America's reputation for open immigration has always been accompanied by a desire to remove or discourage the migration of "undesirables." But recent restrictions placed on immigrants, along with an increase in detentions and deportations, point to a more worrying trend. Immigration enforcement has become the fastest growing sector for spending over the past two decades, dwarfing the money spent on helping immigrants adjust to their new lives. Instead of finding effective ways of integrating newcomers into American society, the United States is focusing on making the process of citizenship more difficult, provoking major protests and unrest.

David C. Brotherton and Philip Kretsedemas provide a history and analysis of recent immigration enforcement in the United States, demonstrating that our current anti-immigration tendencies are not a knee-jerk reaction to the events of September 11. Rather, they have been gathering steam for decades. With contributions from social scientists, policy analysts, legal experts, community organizers, and journalists, the volume critically examines the discourse that has framed the question of immigration enforcement for the general public. It also explores the politics and practice of deportation, new forms of immigrant profiling, relevant case law, and antiterrorist operations. Some contributors couch their critiques in an appeal to constitutional law and the defense of civil liberties. Others draw on the theories of structural inequality and institutional discrimination. These diverse perspectives stimulate new ways of thinking about the issue of immigration enforcement, proving that "security" has more to do with improving legal rights, social mobility, and the well-being of all U.S. residents than keeping out the "other."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231141284
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	04/02/2008
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	1.13(w) x 9.00(h) x 6.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David C. Brotherton is professor and chair of sociology at John Jay and the Graduate Center, CUNY. His books include Globalizing the Streets: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Youth, Social Control, and Empowerment and The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation: Street Politics and the Transformation of a New York City Gang.Philip Kretsedemas is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. A former communications director and policy analyst for the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, he is the co-editor of Immigrants, Welfare Reform, and the Poverty of Policy.

Table of Contents

Foreward: Justice and the Outsider by David Cole
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
1. Open Markets, Militarized Borders?: Immigration Enforcement Today (Philip Kretsedemas and David C. Brotherton)
Part I: The Expansion of Immigration Enforcement: Before 9/11
2. Unchecked Power Against Undesirables: Haitians, Mariel Cubans, and Guantanamo (Mark Dow)
3. Immigration, Terrorism, and Secret Pirsons (Dan Malone)
4. Democracy and Immigration (Ira J. Kurzban)
Part II: Noncitizens as Security Threats: After 9/11
5. Racializing, Criminalizing, and Silencing 9/11 Deportees (Irum Sheikh)
6. Presumption of Guilt: September 11 and the Americal Muslim Community (Arsalan Iftikhar)
7. American and British Constructions of Asylum Seekers: Moral Panic, Detention, and Human Rights (Michael Welch and Liza Schuster)
Part III: From Incarceration to Deportation
8. Exiling New Yorkers (David C. Brotherton)
9. Invisible Removal, Endless Detention, Limited Relief: A Taste of Immigration Court Representation for Detained Noncitizens (Abira Ashfaq)
10. Why Black Immigrants Matter: Refocusing the Discussion on Racism and Immigration Enforcement (Tamara K. Nopper)
Part IV: Inside the Immigration Prison Systems: Activist Perspectives
11. Rafiu's Story: An American Immigrant Nightmare (Malik Ndaula with Debbie Satyal)
12. Familes for Freedom: Against Deportation and Delegalization (Subhash Kateel and Aarti Shahani)
Part V: Looking for "Illegals"
13. Bordering the Other in the U.S. Southwest: El Pasoans Confront the Local Sheriff (Kathleen Staudt)
14. Framing the Debate on Taxes and Undocumented Workers: A Critical Review of Texts Supporting Proenforcement Policies and Practices (Jorge Capetillo-Ponce)
15. What Does an Undocumented Immigrant Look Like?: Local Enforcement and the New Immigrant Profiling (Philip Kretsedemas)
Conclusion: Immigration Reform at a Crossroads (Philip Kretsademas and David C. Brotherton)
Appendix: An Annotated List of Immigration Laws
Glossary
About the Contributors
Index

What People are Saying About This

Dario Melossi

In the United States and the European Union, conflicts around migration have become a central arena for wider political conflicts and the struggles surrounding globalization, including the increasing need for a cosmopolitan concept of citizenship. This volume represents an invaluable guide to the sources, development, and hopeful solutions to such conflicts.

— Dario Melossi, professor of criminology, University of Bologna

Saskia Sassen

Not all is well on the American immigration front. This is one of the most critical examinations of the deep flaws in our laws and enforcement practices concerning the foreigner. Historically, few states have been able to handle the foreigner in a reasonably fair way, but many continue to think that the United States is such a state. This collection pinpoints with frightening precision how and why it is not, and the extent to which these deep flaws are not an aberration or a malfunction but actually an intrinsic part of our law.

— Saskia Sassen, author of Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages

Editorial Reviews

This timely, valuable book significantly contributes to the field of immigration policy and practice, and political studies... Highly recommended.

Choice

With the current immigration debate soon to begin in force once more, it would be advisable for some to read this book in order to better understand the enforcement side of the immigration issue.

— Abraham David Benavides

Public Administration Review

With the current immigration debate soon to begin in force once more, it would be advisable for some to read this book in order to better understand the enforcement side of the immigration issue.

Public Administration Review - Abraham David Benavides