The presentation examines the 20th century and contemporary U.S. deportation policies on South Asian, Mexican and Central American migrants. In the wake of aggressive racial targeting, policing and detention, adult migrants and unaccompanied minors struggle to survive in bewildering and hostile environments and reassemble intimate and kinship ties across both borders and carceral geographies. In recent years, immigrant detainee hunger strikes have produced a crisis for U.S. deportation campaigns and privatized detention centers in Washington, California, Louisiana and Texas. Strikingly grassroots advocacy groups have emphasized migrants’ narratives of disrupted family ties and overcoming vio-lence to create favorable outcomes with the government and alternative publics.
Co-sponsored with American Studies and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.