The immigration detention center as a transnational problem: Implications for international social work

Abstract

Over the last decade in the United States, there has been a rapid intensification of the criminalization of immigration. At the nexus of this criminalization is a new institution with potentially profound consequences for transnational migrants, an especially vulnerable population now receiving increased attention from the social work profession. This article explores this phenomenon and its relevance for international social work.

Toward a liberatory practice: Shifting the ideological premise of trauma work with immigrants.

“…The Congressional Research Service has identified at least 219 immigration bills in 2019 alone. 2 Furman et al (2015) warned, "by criminalizing immigrant populations, the structural inequities in various societies minimize, as immigrants become pathologized and criminalized " (p. 815).…”

“…Our analysis, therefore, exists against the backdrop of seminal legislative acts 1 that had the effect of criminalizing immigrants and adding to what scholars and clinicians have warned are deleterious psychological effects (Comas-Díaz, 2007;Furman et al, 2015;Tummala-Narra, 2014). These legislative acts culminated in the Criminal Alien Program (CAP) and the formation of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, which works to "purposefully .…”