Human Movement and Human Justice: Walls, Prisons, or Peaceful Borders

• In Event: The Prospects for Human Justice and Species Survival in an Era of Political Transformation

Abstract

More humans are being forced to leave or electing to leave their countries of origin than at any time in the past. Key destination states such as the United States and Europe have responded with a turn toward nationalism in their politics, and hardening of their borders. In the United States, the response has been an intensification of crimigration, the increased blending of immigration control with criminalization. In contrast to Trump's promise of a new “fortress America” where bigger walls and larger immigration prisons dominate the border protection narrative, this paper examines the possibilities for a radically different conceptualization of the U.S.-Mexico border that decriminalizes the desire for entry, advances social well-being, and costs less than current and proposed policies relying on walls and prisons.

Author

• Raymond Michalowski, Northern Arizona University