The Slow Violence of Immigration Court

Procedural Justice on Trial

Maya Pagni Barak

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781479821044
• eBook ISBN:
  9781479821051
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Immigration Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Modern-Day Deportation
• 2. Justice and Immigration Court
• 3. Tracing Immigrant Legal Consciousness
• 4. Who Says the Court Can’t Be Fair?
• 5. Deportation Hearings, Legitimacy, and the Rule of Law
• 6. The Case for Substantive Justice
• Conclusion: Reimagining Deportation
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix: Interview Protocols
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author