Immigrant Detention/Deportation and Family Separations

A special issue of Genealogy (ISSN 2313-5778).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2020) | Viewed by 10457

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Hispanic Studies, The University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-3062, USA
Interests: US Latin media and film studies; Mexican film and culture; transnationalism; culture and migration

Special Issue Information

The objective of this special number is to place family separation within a historical and cultural framework that encourages a re-centering of recent family detention to include the effects of adult immigrant detention and deportation.

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Genealogy invites essays on the topic of ‘Immigrant Detention/Deportation and Family Separation’.

With attention on the US–Mexico border, the media has suddenly focused on the topic of family separations, but these discussions are narrow and limited to recent child detention. In the past, it was common to see families that were temporarily separated when migrant men traveled for seasonal work. The militarization of the US–Mexico border cut the migrant flow by making it more difficult to come and go between countries. Migrants created new strategies to maintain families together that involved bringing children to the United States. Crossing the border implies a direct threat of being separated, but the risk remains after entering the United States. The undocumented families that reach their destination live with the fear of the detention and deportation of any undocumented member of the unit. Children with US citizenship also face the peril of losing their undocumented parents. In general, immigrant detention and deportation cause genealogical disruptions.

Papers are invited from any relevant disciplinary backgrounds, addressing but not limited to the topics listed below:

  • The politics of family detention
  • Reunifying separated families
  • Media representations of family separation
  • Immigrant activism to stop family detention
  • Genealogies of deported Mexicans and Mexican-Americans during the Great Depression
  • Disrupted genealogies from migrant deaths at the border
  • Transnationalism and family separation
  • Narratives of migrant detention and deportation

Dr. Christina L. Sisk
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • family separation
  • immigration detention
  • deportation
  • genealogical disrruptions
  • immigrant activism

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 233 KiB  
Article
Seeing Sanctuary: Separation and Accompaniment
by David Hernández
Genealogy 2020, 4(4), 103; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy4040103 - 19 Oct 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2805
Abstract
“Seeing Sanctuary” explores the practice and labeling of immigrant sanctuaries in the Trump era of migration enforcement and family separation. The essay utilizes the case of a class visit to a migrant sanctuary in Amherst, Massachusetts, and explores the challenges, rewards, and sense [...] Read more.
“Seeing Sanctuary” explores the practice and labeling of immigrant sanctuaries in the Trump era of migration enforcement and family separation. The essay utilizes the case of a class visit to a migrant sanctuary in Amherst, Massachusetts, and explores the challenges, rewards, and sense of futility from this flawed but necessary form of accompaniment. In March of 2018, my “History of Deportation” class visited Lucio Pérez, a Guatemalan migrant and nineteen-year resident of Massachusetts, who resides in sanctuary at the First Congregational Church. At this writing, in August 2020, thirty-five months since he entered the church, Pérez is still in sanctuary. Facing deportation in October 2017, Pérez sought refuge, five months prior to our class visit. The essay, drawing from the public narrative of Pérez, distinguishes the open defiance of Pérez’s sanctuary from the broader “sanctuary city” efforts at non-compliance with federal enforcement schemes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immigrant Detention/Deportation and Family Separations)
16 pages, 295 KiB  
Article
The Ideational Stigmatization of Immigration Detainees, Their Advocates, Captors, and Their Apologists in the Commentary Section of U.S. Newspapers
by Eric O. Silva and Matthew B. Flynn
Genealogy 2020, 4(4), 102; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy4040102 - 18 Oct 2020
Viewed by 2461
Abstract
Although the United States has long been criticized for its treatment of migrants, the family separations that resulted from the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy drew particularly intense approbation and much media coverage in June 2018. One way to understand the conflict over [...] Read more.
Although the United States has long been criticized for its treatment of migrants, the family separations that resulted from the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy drew particularly intense approbation and much media coverage in June 2018. One way to understand the conflict over this policy is to view it as a stigma contest where the status of a number of identities (migrant, immigration advocate, captor, policy apologist) are subject to a liminal stigma. Recent scholarship has documented how internet commenters disparage certain identities as they defend others. Through a qualitative content analysis of 172 opinion articles published in U.S. newspapers between 2009 and 2020, this article examines the ways that ideational stigmatization of immigrant detainees, captors, and nativists has and has not varied by time and arena of the public sphere. We find that many of the condemnations and denials found online are also prominent in editorials and op-eds. (e.g., detention as cruel, detainees as noncriminals, captors as racist, detainees as nonvictims,). The commentary section of U.S. newspapers, however, tended to defend the detainees and condemn their captors and nativist citizens. These findings provide a fuller record of how immigration detention and family separation were constructed during the Trump administration and a deeper understanding for the fervor of U.S. nativists. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immigrant Detention/Deportation and Family Separations)
9 pages, 236 KiB  
Article
A Political Action against the Good Immigrant Narrative
by Liliana Campos Ramales
Genealogy 2019, 3(4), 69; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy3040069 - 6 Dec 2019
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4512
Abstract
This brief article draws from research on the undocumented student experience and incorporates personal perspectives about the complexity behind the good immigrant-model, minority narrative on identity formation. From a de-colonial lens, this article aims to emphasize the impact of the DREAM(Development, Relief and [...] Read more.
This brief article draws from research on the undocumented student experience and incorporates personal perspectives about the complexity behind the good immigrant-model, minority narrative on identity formation. From a de-colonial lens, this article aims to emphasize the impact of the DREAM(Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors)-er narrative on the immigrants right’s movement and urges a need to separate the narrative from the movement as a political action to continue to diversify immigration reform advocacy as more inclusive of various immigrant and undocumented sub-communities. Lastly, this article aims to challenge the sociopolitical construct of the undocumented term on identity and introduces the importance of person-centered language to externalize undocumented legal status from the individual to position it as a circumstance rather than an identity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immigrant Detention/Deportation and Family Separations)
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