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The arduous, confusing and fraught journey that immigrants take through immigration court
Each year, hundreds of thousands of migrants are moved through immigration court. With a national backlog surpassing one million cases, court hearings take years and most migrants will eventually be ordered deported. The Slow Violence of Immigration Court sheds light on the experiences of migrants from the “Northern Triangle” (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) as they navigate legal processes, deportation proceedings, immigration court, and the immigration system writ large.
Grounded in the illuminating stories of people facing deportation, the family members who support them, and the attorneys who defend them, The Slow Violence of Immigration Court invites readers to question matters of fairness and justice and the fear of living with the threat of deportation. Although the spectacle of violence created by family separation and deportation is perceived as extreme and unprecedented, these long legal proceedings are masked in the mundane and are often overlooked, ignored, and excused. In an urgent call to action, Maya Pagni Barak deftly demonstrates that deportation and family separation are not abhorrent anomalies, but are a routine, slow form of violence at the heart of the U.S. immigration system.
"Too often, those of us thinking about how to reform the immigration system get lost in the minutiae of procedural law. Barak re-centers us: through gripping personal stories and diligent research, Barak paints a picture of a system in a straitjacket, which, instead of responding to the human suffering it should address, is used as a means of social control of marginalized populations. This is an urgent reading for those who are thinking deeply about how to ‘humanize’ this broken system and those trying to help undocumented people navigate the current labyrinth."
"Barak draws from interviews and ethnographic observations to make a cogent case that the immigration court system needs far more than procedural reforms; it requires a radical reimagining. This book will be especially useful in classes on immigration and procedural justice as Barak eloquently weaves heart-wrenching stories with clear explanations of our complex system of immigration laws and courts."
"Her focus is on the stories of people facing deportation, the family members who support them, and the attorneys who defend them. She concludes that deportation and family separation are not abhorrent anomalies, but are a routine, slow form of violence at the heart of the U.S. immigration system."
"Barak provides a much-needed disruption to dominant procedural justice scholarship by pushing it in a more holistic and intersectional direction...and her evocative writing forces both general and academic audiences to pull back the façade of procedural fairness and lay bare unjust laws and policies."
"Barak draws a comprehensive and vivid portrayal of how the immigrants who are intimately connected to immigration courts see these courts and their place in them and their perceptions of the U.S. immigration system more generally."
"Well-written and cogently structured, this book deserves wide readership."
"Barak’s vision of what removal proceedings should look and feel like is reasonable and convincing, making The Slow Violence of Immigration Court a must-read book."
"In a timely, strategic analysis, [Barak] vividly details the realities of immigrants as they are, supposedly, humanely processed through the court system, contesting the historical and contemporary narrative of procedural justice."
"Pagni Barak’s work is an important contribution to our understanding of these issues. Immigration scholars across disciplines should draw inspiration from her work and continue her efforts to understand how other immigrant groups, past and present, experience the machinery of immigration policy enforcement."