The Slow Violence of Immigration Court

Maya Pagni Barak is Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice and an affiliate of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She is the co-author of Capital Defense: Inside the Lives of America's Death Penalty Lawyers.

"Maya Pagni Barak demonstrates and argues convincingly that no amount of procedural justice reforms will protect non-citizen immigrant populations from the US deportation regime. The regime's tentacles run too deep in these targeted communities to formally ensure their social inclusion. An essential read for those who care about our democratic future." * David Brotherton, co-author of Banished to the Homeland: Dominican Deportees and Their Stories of Exile * "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." * Steven Dudley, author of MS-13: The Making of America's Most Notorious Gang * "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." * Tanya Maria Golash-Boza, author of Deported: Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor, and Global Capitalism *