Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez

Migrating to Prison traces American’s predilection for locking up immigrants. It didn’t start with Trump and it didn’t start with Obama. In fact, even the famed Ellis Island entry included a detention center. However, we are locking up more people for longer for more specious reasons than ever before. How has this happened?

The first part of the book focuses on the history of immigration laws and detention. None of it is terribly surprising. We have always worked to restrict immigration from nonwhite countries.

However, while detention was always a possibility, today’s explosion of immigrant detention is unprecedented. It’s all about politics and money. Demagoguery about outsiders is an effective way to attract supporters. People like simple explanations that blame other people, the more “other” the better. When politicians seek power through hate and couple that with the profit motive of private detention of immigrants, there is trouble.

He also discusses the lack of second chances for immigrants. People lose any path to citizenship for even slight infractions such as having a joint or driving without a license and can be put on the path to deportation. He discusses the case of Garcia Zarate whose indictment for the shooting of Kate Steinle was demagogued by Republicans even though in the end, the jury acquitted him, but not before Boehner’s House passed Kate’s Law. It died in the Senate. Prison is the first resort for immigrants with even misdemeanor offenses, justified as necessary for public safety.

And yes, the money. It’s not just the donations from private contractors, it’s the communities whose main industry is a prison. Closing a prison means lost jobs, people moving away, and lost government funding. Prisoners count in the census which determines representation in state and federal government and the share of state and federal support communities garner. When a prison is in danger of closing, the townspeople and their reps rush to defend and protect its existence. Locking up migrants is particularly profitable because the cost is born solely by the federal government, no local and state money is kicked in.

Migrating to Prison is an important book. Immigration is a deeply polarizing issue and was the linchpin to Trump’s election. The book is well organized and full of personal stories that should shock the conscience. Best of all, García Hernández has more comprehensive suggestions to reform the system than repeal Citizens United. He knows that abolition requires a sea change in our attitudes, but provides examples of several programs that have worked in the past to prove that immigrants do not need to be detained in order to show up for hearings nor is it necessary to protect public safety.

I received an e-galley of Migrating to Prison from the publisher through NetGalley.

Migrating to Prison at The New Press
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández family page

Article by the author in Time Magazine

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