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Resistance and Representation in the Struggle for Migrant Rights

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Moving out of the Shadows: Resistance and Representation in the Struggle for Migrant Rights THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Lauren Elizabeth Hines Graduate Program in Geography The Ohio State University 2013 Master's Examination Committee: Mathew Coleman, Advisor, Nancy Ettlinger, Joel Wainwright Copyrighted by Lauren Elizabeth Hines 2013 Abstract This thesis examines organizational attempts at and consequences of institutionalizing support for migrants. In addition, the thesis investigates specific instances of migrant mobility and strategic incapacitation as resistance to regimes of immigration enforcement and as contestation of US claims to sovereignty. Immigration enforcement depends upon the policing and subsequent restriction of migrants’ movement. These regimes of enforcement crossing multiple scales serve as a dragnet, generating a pretext for law enforcement interaction with migrants with potential for bypassing the criminal justice system. Immigration enforcement as well as local practices, discourses, and policies work together to render migrants as racialized, criminal subjects facing detention and removal. Connecting specific case studies of localized regimes of enforcement and targeted acts of resistance, this thesis exposes how migrants come to be understood as either lawful and worthy to remain in the US, or criminal and deserving of removal. This thesis discusses specific instances of enforcement through migrant incapacitation as well as mobility- centric attempts at resistance. I critique actions carried out by national campaigns and organizations by examining strategy behind these attempts at resistance as well as general effectiveness in contesting the discursive and practice-based criminalization of migrants. In its exploration of migrant advocacy and regulation, this paper argues for a new rights- based organizing approach no longer dependent on the binary opposition of migrants as criminal/lawful. ii Vita 2005................................................................Upper Arlington High School 2009................................................................B.A. English and Spanish, College of Wooster 2012 to present ..............................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Geography, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: Geography iii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Vita ..................................................................................................................................... iii Acronyms ........................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Incapacitation .................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 7 Migrant Regulation as Federal Responsibility, and Limits to Local Involvement ..... 8 Migrant Criminalization, Incapacitation, and Removal ............................................ 16 Secure Communities in Franklin County: A Locally-Situated Case Study .............. 29 Picking Up at Random .............................................................................................. 40 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 45 Chapter 2: Resistance ........................................................................................................ 47 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 47 §1. March For America and Comprehensive Immigration Reform .......................... 49 §2. Trail of DREAMs and the DREAM Act ............................................................. 53 iv §3. Undoccupation of Obama for America and Deferred Action ............................. 57 §4. Infiltration of Broward Transitional Center ........................................................ 61 §5. UndocuBus and Migrant Dignity ........................................................................ 66 Effectiveness of Spatial Strategies of Resistance ...................................................... 70 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 76 Chapter 3: Representation ................................................................................................. 79 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 79 “Can the Subaltern Speak?”: A Commentary ........................................................... 80 My Role in Representing the Subaltern .................................................................... 87 Immigration Enforcement and Representation .......................................................... 89 Advocacy and Representation ................................................................................... 92 Migrants Silenced and Criminalized through Advocacy and Enforcement .............. 97 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 102 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 107 References ....................................................................................................................... 111 v Acronyms BMV: Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles CBP: Customs and Border Patrol DNC: Democratic National Convention DHS: Department of Homeland Security DOJ: Department of Justice DREAM Act: Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, first introduced in 2001, which provides a pathway to citizenship for a subset of unauthorized migrant youth EWI: Entry without inspection, a civil immigration charge FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation IAFIS: Automated Biometric Identification System, fingerprint and criminal history database managed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ICE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement IDENT: Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, biometric and biographic database managed by the Department of Homeland Security INA: Immigration and Nationality Act, the essential legal code shaping immigration law in the United States IIRIRA: Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act of 1996, which expanded code violations outlined in the Immigration and Nationality Act MOA: Memorandum/memoranda of Agreement OVI: Operating a vehicle while intoxicated vi Introduction On a humid June morning in 2012, two young men in bright red and blue mortarboards and gowns walked into the Cincinnati Obama for America reelection campaign headquarters. The two carried a rolled-up painted piece of cloth, which they unfurled when they reached the desk closest to the door. The metal desk supported the banner, which read “EXECUTIVE ORDER NOW.” The two young men sat on the office’s exposed wooden floors and refused to leave until the Obama administration stopped deporting undocumented youth. The Cincinnati Obama for America office closed immediately. Campaign staff went home; campaign supervisors told scheduled volunteers to stay away. One security guard held the office on lockdown to ensure that no more protesters stormed the office. Three days later, President Obama announced a change in DHS’s removal priorities. As Obama detailed the program on national television, undocumented youth continued to occupy his Cincinnati, Ann Arbor, Los Angeles, and Oakland reelection campaign offices, which were still closed indefinitely. Under the newly-created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, undocumented youth fitting the stringent 1 requirements placed before them face a temporary stay of removal. Public opinion hailed this announcement an attempt by the Obama administration to appeal to the Latino base and secure Democratic votes in November. Only a handful of local media and alternative national media sources reported on undocumented youth and allies’ sustained occupation of four Obama for America offices. Obama for America did not press charges against the youth who had occupied their offices. None of the undocumented occupiers – ‘undoccupiers’ – were deported. Why did undocumented youth destabilize the president’s reelection campaign efforts in certain cities? Why didn’t the youth advocate for passage of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act? Why did Obama choose not to deport the Obama for America undoccupiers? Why are other undocumented youth deported? How do immigration enforcement partnerships that target criminal aliens for removal result overwhelmingly in deportations of migrants with no court records? How does a migrant become a criminal alien? Why haven’t pro-migrant activists realized comprehensive immigration reform, or at least protected migrant communities from increased immigration enforcement? This thesis answers these questions within the larger theoretical framework of migrant
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