The Center for Critical Democracy Studies at The American University of Paris and Professor Miranda Spieler invite you to the seventh symposium of a 7-part series on "Race, Law and Justice."
The Prison Abolitionist Movement: The Convergence of Movements to End Immigrant Detention and Mass Incarceration (Michelle Kuo)
This paper begins with the observation that the prison abolitionist movement stands at the intersection of two social justice struggles: the demand to end mass incarceration and the call to end immigrant detention and deportation. The former, which alternately describes incarceration as 鈥渢he new Jim Crow鈥 or 鈥渃arceral slavery,鈥 centers incarcerated Black people as the inheritors of America鈥檚 long history of racial violence. The latter, embodied by #Abolish ICE, has increasingly called detention centers 鈥渋mmigration prisons鈥 and figures the unauthorized immigrant as a听longstanding victim of exclusionary policies underpinned by claims of American sovereignty. This convergence has not been inevitable.听The legal doctrines under which prisoners and detained migrants are incarcerated鈥攃riminal law and administrative law, respectively鈥攈ave been mostly discrete. This paper describes the legal conditions in the past thirty years, in particular the implications of the听crimmigration field, that have made this convergence possible.听It asks how this convergence might be fruitful in imagining new forms of collectivity among immigrants and descendants of American slaves.
Michelle Kuo
Michelle Kuo is an associate professor of History, Law, and Society at the American University of Paris. Her book,听Reading with Patrick听(2017, Random House) explores incarceration, racial inequality, and literacy in the rural South. It was the runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In her work as a lawyer, Michelle has clerked for a federal judge for the Ninth Circuit and defended incarcerated and undocumented people.听Currently she听is听a pro bono attorney for the Stanford Three Strikes Project and recently helped found a听nonprofit that creates a global network of formerly incarcerated people.听
Registrants will receive an email, including the event details and the link to join the event, 24 hours prior to the event start time.
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