Immigration and American Democracy: Subverting the Rule of Law

Description

While the idea of immigration embodies America's rhetorical commitment to democracy, recent immigration control policies also showcase abysmal failures in democratic practice. Immigration and American Democracy examines these failures in terms of state sovereignty, neoliberalism, and surveillance-based techniques of social control. The ideological argument for privatization is not new. But immigration has provided a laboratory for replicating on American soil the sorts of outsourcing travesties that have occurred in America's war in Iraq. As an outcome, abusive executive powers-many delegated to state and local governments and private actors-are manifested every day in data collection, spying, detention, and deportation hearings, and in many cases bypassing the Constitution. The practice of privatization extends this leviathan immigration state by clamping down on civil liberties without having to oblige the courts. Ultimately, Koulish examines the contested terrain between democratic and undemocratic forces in the immigration policy domain and concludes with recommendations for how democratic forces might well still win out. Book Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents Preface Abbreviations Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Framing “Illegal Aliens”: Sovereignty, Plenary Powers, and Discretion Chapter 3 Criminalizing Immigration Chapter 4 Neoliberalism, Risk, and Immigration Control Chapter 5 Privatization of Immigration Control Chapter 6 Race, Class, and the Border Fence Fiasco Chapter 7 The Federalization of Sovereign Control: Outsourcing Immigration Enforcement Authority to State and Local Officials Chapter 8 Immigrant Resistance or Immigrant Control: The Technology Game is On Chapter 9 President Obama’s New Emphasis on Immigration Control Chapter 10 Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index