Dignity politics in immigrant detention

ABSTRACT

This essay reflects on Claire Jean Kim’s racial triangulation theory in light of the 20-year convergence between the US immigration system and the carceral state. Drawing on a non-probability sample of 70 in-depth interviews with individuals who had direct and vicarious immigrant detention experiences, I argue that immigrant detention depends on anti-Blackness to manage race-class subjugated groups’ demands for de-carceration. Interviews expose how Latinx immigrant subgroups and other immigrant subgroups are differently subjected to carceral logics in ways that compel or suppress their resistance to racial triangulation. Finally, by recentering the agency of directly impacted individuals, the essay complicates Latinx politics and sheds light on an emerging dignity politics in immigrant detention with implications for intergroup relations.

KEYWORDS:

• Racial triangulation
• Latinx politics
• Black Lives Matter
• structural anti-Blackness
• immigrant detention
• the carceral state
• racial distancing‌
• resistance

Acknowledgements

This research exists because of the resilience and courage of the people who shared their stories of survivor hood. The author expresses her thanks to Dianne M. Pinderhughes, Luis R. Fraga, and David Cortez for their invaluable guidance and mentorship. Support for data collection was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation Fellowship Program, and the University of Notre Dame Institute for Latino Studies. The author is grateful for the insightful comments from the manuscript’s reviewers and the Politics, Groups, and Identities editorial team.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by APSA NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant [award number SES 2000500]; Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.