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.
