This op-ed for the Chicago Trbiune assesses the U.S. detention policy enshrining a double standard between treatment of Haitians that was quietly issued in 2001 by the Bush administration in the hopes of deterring a wave of migrants and asylum seekers fleeing the rapidly deteriorating political and economic conditions in Haiti. Haitians making it to U.S. territory would […]
Staff PublicationsArticles, blogs, books, chapters, op-eds, and other publications written by Global Detention Project staff members and advisers for journals, partner organisations, scholarly collaborations, or media outlets.
Articles, blogs, books, chapters, op-eds, and other publications written by Global Detention Project staff members and advisers for journals, partner organisations, scholarly collaborations, or media outlets.
Searching for Safe Haven
“Of the planet’s more than 6 billion people, some 240 million are on the move, fleeing war, persecution, poverty, environmental degradation, or just seeking a better life.” You’ll find their names on page two of every issue of the Bulletin: Albert Einstein, Hans Bethe, Rudolf Peierls, Leo Szilard, Victor Weisskopf, and James Franck. Besides having […]
Guatemala: Is This Peace?
The civil war ended six years ago. Although Guatemala’s uprooted are trying to rebuild their lives, extreme poverty, violence, distrust, and fear remain. During Guatemala’s 36-year civil war, more than a million people were driven from their homes. This spring, I visited the country to see how, six years after the signing of “a firm […]
Donde Esta La Frontera?
IN THE EARLY MORNING OF DECEMBER 3, 2001, Kanu Okany Patel, a 35- year-old undocumented migrant from Gujarat, India, furtively made his way to the bathroom of a government-run detention center in Guatemala City, tied one end of a sturdy cord he’d secretly stripped from a window curtain around his neck, the other around a […]
