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Immigration

Race

Immigration Enforcement and the Afterlife of the Slave Ship

Coast Guard techniques for blocking Haitian asylum seekers have their roots in the slave trade. Understanding these connections can help us disentangle immigration policy from white nationalism.

Ryan Fontanilla

Global Justice

The Cruelty of Trump’s ICE Under COVID-19

The pandemic risks turning immigration detention into a death sentence for many, yet the Trump administration has rejected calls for mass humanitarian release, and continues to deport infectious detainees to Latin America.

Lauren Carasik

Arts in Society

Solidarity Through Poetry

When Celes Tisdale led poetry workshops at Attica State Prison, soon after the 1971 uprising, some of the prisoners were still recovering from gunshots. Their writings demonstrates the power of poetry to help oppressed people heal from trauma and organize their political thinking.

Mark Nowak

Arts in Society

The Pruner’s Tale

An ancient pilgrimage route inspires a project of cooperative storytelling which pairs writers with detained immigrants, such as the Mexican horticulturalist in this story.

Lytton Smith, David Herd

Law & Justice

Rethinking Birthright

Amidst chants of “send her back,” it’s clear that we need a more just conception of citizenship—one that abolishes the distinction between “natural” and naturalized citizens.

Stephanie DeGooyer

Global Justice

The Government Is Targeting Immigration Lawyers, Activists, and Reporters

A leaked Department of Homeland Security database confirms what many suspected: the U.S. government is trying to punish and intimidate people advocating for immigrant rights.

Lauren Carasik

Reading Lists

Is Citizenship Meaningless?

A reading list on surveillance, security, and citizenship-for-sale.

Rosie Gillies, Boston Review

Law & Justice

Citizenship v. The Surveillance State

We have surrendered the cherished value of “innocent until proven guilty” for the security logic that we are all “risky until proven safe.”

Matthew Longo

Race

What White Supremacists Know

The violent theft of land and capital is at the core of the U.S. experiment: the U.S. military got its start in the wars against Native Americans.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Race

The Origins of Birthright Citizenship

The Fourteenth Amendment was shaped by freed blacks’ insistence that everyone born in the United States deserved full citizenship.

Robert L. Tsai

Arts in Society

Imperfect Remembrance

A new anthology is dedicated to the scholar who saw nostalgia as a radical rebellion against modern ideas of time.

Marta Figlerowicz

Law & Justice, Politics

The Border President

Trump v. Hawaii is not about religion. It’s about the president’s unlimited power at the border.

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd

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