The border is everywhere

On Oct. 13, Miranda Hallett, associate professor and associate director of human rights studies program, and Yulianna Otero ’21 held a PATH-eligible talk entitled “The Border is Everywhere.”

They discussed their research on immigration enforcement in the Midwest while highlighting systematic racism and social hierarchies that currently exist. The talk was part of a series of events for UD’s celebration of LatinX Heritage Month, sponsored by the Multi-Ethnic Education and Engagement Center.

Can you tell me about the event?

Hallett: The audience included a few faculty and staff as well as a very engaged group of 15 students, who had heard about the event through MEC or through their classes.

Otero: First, we presented our academic research in the more traditional style of presenting research at academic conferences. Then, we had a mini workshop on immigration issues today under the Biden administration, immigration enforcement in the Midwest, and ways that people can be allies and get involved in efforts to end immigration detention in the U.S.

Have the two of you worked together in the past? How did the idea for this presentation come about?

Otero: I have taken two anthropology courses with Dr. Hallett and traveled to El Salvador with her as part of one of these courses. Then, during my last semester at UD, as Dr. Hallett’s research assistant, we co-authored an academic case study article on insurgent citizenship against migrant incarceration in Ohio — the migrant’s collective activism within Butler County jail, and the supporting actions of allies outside the jail, particularly based on the event, Solidarity With Immigrants, allies organized in support to the lawsuit from the detained migrants.

Hallett: I love to collaborate with brilliant students on research projects, and Yulianna has been an absolute joy to work with on this case study. We fell into the case study by accident, in a way, after learning about some very serious human rights abuses in the immigration detention wing of the Butler County jail about a year ago, in the middle of the fall 2020 semester. We both got involved in the process of mobilizing a response to those abuses. After we learned about the amazing way that detained people in the jail had worked together to bring these injustices to light, we felt like it was a story we wanted to share with others — and to learn more about ourselves. For months, we conducted interviews with activists and advocates, and we looked more systematically at the legal documents and reports that had been part of this case. That’s the basis of our co-authored article, which is now under review at the academic journal Citizenship Studies.

Otero: This presentation was based on our academic research and ways in which the UD community can support efforts to protect the rights of migrants, abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and migrant detention, and challenge their complicity to the systems of migrant incarceration present in our backyards.

What initially interested the two of you in immigration enforcement in the Midwest?

Otero: As a Puerto Rican woman, migration issues have been close to my heart for as long as I can remember. My passion for this issue and social justice in general is why I became a women’s and gender studies and human rights studies major at UD. During my junior year in Dr. Hallett’s class, I learned about the criminalization of immigration, the militarization of border enforcement, the profitization of keeping migrants jailed and the horrible rights violations that occur inside these detention centers.

Hallett: My research specialization includes migration studies and human rights. I’ve mostly looked very specifically at the experiences of Salvadoran migrants and issues of displacement from Central America. There are similarities and common threads — Salvadoran migrants are often seeking asylum, for example, and many of the people detained in Butler County were also asylum seekers who were afraid to return to their countries for fear of violence.

This research was a little different for me, however, because it was centered around a very diverse group of people from multiple countries, and my field site was so close to home. It’s the first time I’ve really done formal research on enforcement in the Midwest, although I’ve been involved in speaking out about the human rights issues for immigrants here in Dayton as a community member and local citizen.

To me, it’s important to see how interconnected the denial of human rights is for migrants, from the moment of their displacement to the ways they are received (or not received) in safe countries where they seek asylum or sanctuary. You don’t have to go very far to find systematic abuses of peoples’ human rights — it’s really as close as you’re willing to look.

You don’t have to go very far to find systematic abuses of peoples’ human rights — it’s really as close as you’re willing to look.

What did you discover through your research? What surprised you the most?

Otero: We learned how the migrants who were detained at Butler County jail reimagined ways to practice citizenship and claim their rights through writing letters and filing a lawsuit — in a space of violent exclusion and devoid of state-imposed “legal” citizenship — and how allies outside the jail amplified and supported their endeavor. More than 50 migrants, across linguistic and cultural differences, were willing to organize and support the two main plaintiffs regardless of the retaliation they faced from both ICE and the jail’s correctional officers.

Through this, we saw how, as much as the U.S. immigration system of deterrence and incarceration wishes to dehumanize immigrants, not only did the migrants’ lives before being detained (as activists, teachers and more) serve as a catalyst and tool for mobilizing for their rights, but also the condition of being incarcerated itself. 

Hallett: What surprised me the most, and what gave me the most hope for the future, was the incredible courage of the detained people who stuck out their necks to speak up for each other, and to protect those who were being targeted. Often, people who are imprisoned are so afraid of the authorities that they are silent in the face of serious injustice. But in this case, even the people who weren’t directly affected came together in solidarity to say “this isn’t right” and they were willing to risk retaliation and deportation to tell the truth about what was happening.

Why was this topic important to include in LatinX Heritage Month events at UD? What did it add that other events, or even traditional courses, might leave out?

Otero: This topic is important to include because, while migration is often portrayed as a far-off issue happening only on the U.S.-Mexico border, our presentation localizes the violence of immigration enforcement and incarceration for the UD community to understand their proximity and complicity in this violence. However, our research does not only describe the violence migrant’s face, but most importantly, it focuses on the migrant’s activism from within that space of violence and how allies can act in support of migrant’s claims in Dayton and Cincinnati.

Additionally, this topic is a broader part of the history of the continued oppression of Latin American and African countries under U.S. imperialism and the global inequity that exacerbates the unstable conditions in the home countries from which Latin American and African people often flee — only to be received with violent incarceration, exploitation and deportation.

Lastly, our research shows how migrants come from many different countries and racial and religious backgrounds, and particularly shows the anti-Black racist violence present in the U.S. immigration system and how this struggle is a broader part of the fight against racialized mass incarceration and the racist institution of policing in the U.S.

How can members of the UD community support immigrants’ human rights in the Midwest? What are action steps that can be taken?

Otero: There are many local organizations that you can join to advocate for the rights of immigrants, and many of them have newsletters you can sign up to get updates about local events and mobilizations, as well as resources to learn about immigration issues. Here are a few options:

• As part of the Ohio Immigrant Visitation, you can visit detained migrants, and form part of letter-writing campaigns to detained migrants. You can check out where detention centers are located in your state, and how to visit or write to migrants on the Freedom for Immigrants website.
  
  
• The Ohio Immigrant Alliance is a group of Ohio immigrants and citizens that engage in activism and volunteerism across the state to protect the dignity of immigrants in Ohio. You can attend solidarity/organizing meetings, volunteer to serve immigrants, as well as donate to them, the Ohio Immigrant Defense Fund, and/or Black Mauritanian Legal Defense Fund.
   
• In Dayton specifically, there is the Miami Valley Immigration Coalition, a coalition of faith communities advocating for immigration reform and serving immigrants in Dayton. You can volunteer to serve immigrants in Dayton, help them call legislators and advocate for immigration reform, or donate so they can continue serving immigrants.

• In Cincinnati, the Youth Educating Society youth group (part of Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center) leadership program designed for high school and college-aged youth who are documented and undocumented immigrants, children from immigrant families, or allies who want to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform through personal storytelling. You can invite a YES speaker to an event, join the group to help advocate for immigrants, or take action by calling lawmakers and advocating for immigration reform.

Nationally, there are many advocacy campaigns and networks you can join to help immigration reform and abolish ICE, such as the Detention Watch Network, Freedom for Immigrants, and United We Dream.