Sydney Warinner – English & Spanish

Systemic Violence and Disability Protections for Central American Migrants in Detention

In response to influxes in immigration from Central America, ICE has vastly expanded the immigrant detention system, but deliberately failed to meet the medical needs of this larger detained population and utilized deterrence strategies, including  inhumane conditions and inadequate healthcare services. I propose that a Latin American cultural studies perspective on the systemic violence in the migration process reveals that the ICE immigrant detention system is one of multiple stages in a chain of systemic violence that drives and regulates transnational migration from the Northern Triangle of Central America to the U.S.  I argue that the effects of systemic violence during transnational migration qualify Central American migrants under disability health protections upon entry in the U.S., which deems federal disability applicable to ICE detention centers.  I argue that ICE’s deterrence strategies violate federal disability discrimination and due process law, which provides disability rights organizations with legal justifications to file a lawsuit against ICE to push for immediate release of disabled detained immigrants.  Using migrant testimony in Óscar Martínez’s works, The Beast (2013) and A History of Violence (2016), as evidence, I evaluate the systemic violence during migration to demonstrate that entry into the migration process, the journey through Mexico, and reception in the U.S. are interconnected and equally violent stages of a unified migration process.  I then evaluate the health effects of systemic violence, compare their symptoms to U.S. disability definitions.  Finally, I evaluate reports of ICE’s inhumane treatment and inadequate healthcare as evidence that its practices violate federal law.  I propose that these rights violations provide a legal argument to reform the detention system and immediately release disabled detained immigrants.