Other People's Blood

U.s. Immigration Prisons In The Reagan Decade

Robert S Kahn

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9780813324456
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429978173
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

During the 1980s thousands of refugees from Central America, who sought safe haven in the United States, found themselves incarcerated in immigration prisonsabused by their jailors and deprived of the most basic legal and human rights. Drawing on declassified government documents and interviews with more than 3,000 Central American refugees, Kahn portrays the chilling reality of daily life in immigration prisons and reveals how the Department of Justice and the Immigration and Naturalization Service intentionally violated federal laws and regulations to deny protection to refugees fleeing wars financed by U.S. military aid. }During the 1980s hundreds of thousands of refugees fled civil wars and death squads in Central America, seeking safe haven in the United States. Instead, thousands found themselves incarcerated in immigration prisonsabused by their jailors and deprived of the most basic legal and human rights. Drawing on declassified government documents and interviews with prison officials, INS staff, and more than 3,000 Central American refugees, Robert S. Kahn reveals how the Department of Justice and its dependent agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, intentionally violated federal laws and regulations to deny protection to refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala who were fleeing wars financed by U.S. military aid.Kahn portrays the chilling reality of daily life in immigration prisons in Texas, Arizona, and Louisiana. Behind the razor-topped prison walls, refugees were not simply denied political asylum; they were beaten, robbed, sexually assaulted, and sometimes tortured by prison guards. Other Peoples Blood traces the ten-year legal struggle by volunteer prison workers and attorneys to stop the abuse of refugees and to force the Justice Department to concede in court that its treatment of immigrants had violated U. S. laws and the Geneva Convention for over a decade. Yet the case of American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh, which overturned more judicial decisions than any other case in U.S. history, is still virtually unknown in the United States, and today the debate over illegal immigration is being carried on with little awareness of the government policies that contributed so shamefully to this countrys immigration problems. }

Index

Abourezk, James, 54

Abrams, Elliott, 21, 40, 41, 42, 43, 89

ACLU. See American Civil Liberties Union

Administrative Procedures Act, 203

Afghan refugees, 239, 243n31

Agency for International Development (AID), 54

Alexandria Town Talk, 162

Alfaro, Victor Clark, 10

Al-Shiraa (magazine), 21

Amber Motel, 192, 202–203, 204–205

American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh, 2, 13, 22–23, 24(n8), 219, 220–221

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 41–42

American Friends Service Committee, 154

American Immigration Lawyers Association, 153

American Military Policy in Small Wars: The Case of El Salvador, 33

Americas Watch, 87

Amnesty International, 22, 87, 189

Anaya, Herbert, 165, 176n68

ARENA party, 33, 46(n11), 200, 208

Argentina Pinal, Rosa, 85

Arthur, Lawrence, 89

Asylum

court system and, 66–69, 87–88, 217–219

for Nicaraguan refugees, 19, 21, 27(n37), 221(n1), 222nn 5,8

for Salvadoran refugees, 12, 44–45, 223n14

Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, 129, 145, 169, 170

Auslander, Charles, 218–219

Austin, Duke, 25(n24), 43, 154, 204

Ayala, David, 190

Bail bonds, 72–73, 126–127

Baltimore Sun, 124

Baró, Martín, 200, 235

Barrera, Lucia and Jorge, 236–237

Bayview detention center. See Port Isabel immigration prison

Beatings, in INS prisons, 86–87

Benavides, Guillermo, 200, 225n48

Bentsen, Lloyd, 126, 127, 206–207, 224n37

Binational Center for Human Rights, 10

Bismark, James, 216

Blancas, Dino, 85

Blanco, Reynaldo, 165

Boland Amendments, 2, 130n3

Boldin, Hal, 17

Bonner, Raymond, 36

BOP. See Bureau o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Contents
• Author's Note
• Acknowledgments
• INTRODUCTION
• THE BORDER IS A THIRD COUNTRY
• MURDER BY REMOTE CONTROL
• THE CORRALÓN
• WASHINGTON, D.C.
• LAREDO
• FLORENCE PRISON
• OAKDALE
• CHILDREN OF THE CONTRAS
• BROWNSVILLE
• OTHER PEOPLE'S BLOOD
• Suggested Readings
• About the Book and Author
• Index