By American Immigration Council

The collusion between local law enforcement agencies and U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) is well-documented. Local law enforcement agencies like the Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) often work in concert with USBP agents in constructing a dragnet that serves as a force multiplier for USBP to funnel immigrants—most of whom have no criminal history—into deportation proceedings. These enforcement practices often go unchecked despite accounts suggesting a pattern of potentially unconstitutional practices. This unfettered enforcement upends the lives of immigrants who have developed deep ties to the United States and often impacts U.S. citizens and immigrants with lawful status who are part of mixed status families. It also makes Latino residents and people of color who are U.S. citizens or lawful immigrants undue targets of enforcement. Immigrants of color including those of Latin American origin who live, travel, or work in Ohio often bear the brunt of these disproportionate and discriminatory immigration enforcement practices.

Washington, DC: American Immigration Council, 2024. 22p.

By Julia Black

Nearly 60 percent of deaths documented during migration are linked to drowning. Search and rescue capacities to assist migrants in distress at sea must be strengthened to help save lives, while working with IOM, partners, and governments to facilitate regular migration pathways. More than two-thirds of those whose deaths were documented through IOM’s Missing Migrants Project are unidentified. Without knowing the fate of migrants from their households and communities, families and those communities of origin must face the lasting impacts of the ambiguous loss of a loved one. More than one in three migrants whose country of origin could be identified come from countries in conflict. This implies attempts to leave areas of conflict without safe pathways to do so. One of IOM’s strategic priorities is to work with countries to facilitate safe, regular, and orderly pathways to ameliorate unnecessary loss of life through dangerous, irregular means.   

Berlin: Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) International Organization for Migration (IOM). 2024, 19pg

By Jukka Könönen

Notwithstanding claims about the emergence of ‘crimmigration’ systems, immigration law and criminal law entail two different sets of instruments for authorities to control foreign nationals. Drawing on an analysis of removal orders for foreign offenders in Finland, this article demonstrates that significant administrative powers in immigration enforcement are employed largely autonomously from the criminal justice system. Immigration law enables the police and immigration officials to issue removal orders based on fines or penal orders for (suspected) minor offences, without obtaining criminal convictions. In addition to disproportionate administrative sanctions for foreign nationals, removal orders involve a preventive rationale targeting future risks for the society based on the assumed continuation of criminal activities. While criminal courts adjudicate all severe offences, punitive application of immigration law enables authorities to bypass criminal justice procedures and safeguards, resulting in a distinct, administrative punitive system for visiting third-country nationals.

Theoretical Criminology Volume 28, Issue 1, February 2024, Pages 70-87

By James F. Hollifield

How do liberal democracies balance the need for security with their commitment to protecting the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants? How can states coordinate migration governance while navigating asymmetries in interests and power? Decisions that address national security can seemingly come at the cost of protecting the rights of the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses. At the same time, liberal democracies must also consider the different calculi of unilateral action and multilateral cooperation.

This policy brief defines the liberal paradox in immigration and refugee policy and explains how the United States and other liberal democracies confront the dilemmas of forced displacement with respect to the competing interests of security, culture, economy, and rights. It provides recommendations on ways to improve international and regional cooperation and to address the challenges in the management of forced migration and human displacement.

Washington, DC:  Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars , 2024. 9p.

By  Maéva Clément 

This book addresses debates around radicalisation and political violence, and presents a timely analysis of the politics of emotions in narratives of political activism and violence. Drawing on extensive primary data consisting of texts, audios, and videos produced by five Islamist organisations active in the UK in the 2000s and Germany in the early 2010s, the book explores how collective actors move from moderate politics to (violent) extremism. The book develops an innovative theoretical and methodological framework at the intersection of world politics, peace and conflict studies, critical terrorism research, literary studies, and transdisciplinary emotion research. In the first part, Clément problematises previous categorisations of Islamist activism and reconstructs organisations’ phases of activism in a data-driven, systematic way. In the second part, the analysis centres on how organisations legitimise changes in activism narratively. Specifically, the book delves into the performance of collective emotions in and through narrative and interrogates their effects on (violent) collective action. By introducing the concept of ‘narrative emotionalisation’, Clément adds to our understanding of narrative deployments in the context of political violence. While organisations couch radical changes in activism in a strikingly similar romantic narrative, the compared analysis across cases reveals that ‘narrative emotionalisation’ fully unfolds only in phases of extremism. By exploring how non-state actors manage collective emotions, this book extends beyond the ideology-centric and strategic-rationalist approaches to group radicalisation. It offers an insightful and nuanced account of non-state agency and emotion dynamics in political conflicts

Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2023. 274p.

By Prem Mahadevan, Maria Khoruk, and Alla Mohamad Mohmandzaï

The fall of Kabul in August 2021 marked the onset of a fourth wave of distress migration from Afghanistan in the last 50 years, a departure from the relative stability during the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2001-21). This research, conducted in collaboration with the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), unveils the pervasive features of Afghan migrant smuggling and examines the ramifications of the Taliban's resurgence on human mobility.

Drawing from extensive interviews with successful migrants, those who attempted but failed, as well as the smugglers and financiers integral to their journeys, the study elucidates the enduring presence of an illicit economy crucial not only for Afghanistan but also for the broader region and the Global North.

This research study pursues a twofold objective: firstly, it analyses preliminary findings, providing insights into the evolving dynamics of human mobility post-Kabul's fall on August 15, 2021. Secondly, it addresses a literature gap by exploring the role of informal value transfer systems (IVTS) in clandestine Afghan migration. Although the study doesn't offer a comprehensive overview, it paints a vivid, albeit impressionistic, picture of contemporary Afghan clandestine movement, shaped by the experiences of migrants, their families, and those offering migrant smuggling services. These insights pave the way for a future research agenda.

Key takeaways emphasise the volatile nature of the irregular migration market in Afghanistan, requiring adaptability from those seeking an escape. The study underscores the significant role of IVTS like hawala in the Afghan human smuggling economy, with hawala brokers' trust and credibility further legitimising human smugglers. In irregular migration hotspots, IVTS serve as an integral part of the human smuggling infrastructure. Additionally, shared ethnic backgrounds establish trust relationships and are frequently leveraged by human smugglers and money transfer service providers. While enhanced barriers may increase migration costs and risks, they are unlikely to deter further migration driven by perceived economic and security imperatives, further deepening migrants' reliance on smuggler services.

Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham. 2023, 33pg

By Polaris

We have long known human trafficking to be a pervasive and versatile crime, as traffickers and exploiters adjust to changing environments. The COVID-19 pandemic showed us the profound adaptability of human trafficking. A global pandemic did not stop or impede trafficking from happening and, with few exceptions, did not seem to change how it happens or to whom it happens. In this report, we examine data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline from January 2020 through August 2022 and explore a snapshot of the top findings of human trafficking during the calamitous pandemic years. We provide top trends and answers to questions we typically report on as a part of our data analysis, and introduce how select trends that began early in the pandemic changed or continued as the crisis evolved. 

Washington, DC: Polaris, 2024. 10p

Edited by Alicia Schrikker and Nira Wickramasinghe

This multidisciplinary volume brings together scholars and writers who try to come to terms with the histories and legacies of European slavery in the Indian Ocean. The volume discusses a variety of qualitative data on the experience of being a slave in order to recover ordinary lives and, crucially, to place this experience in its Asian local context. Building on the rich scholarship on the slave trade, this volume offers a unique perspective that embraces the origin and afterlife of enslavement as well as the imaginaries and representations of slaves rather than the trade in slaves itself.

Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2020.332p.

Edited by Damian A. Pargas, Juliane Schiel

This open access handbook takes a comparative and global approach to analyse the practice of slavery throughout history. To understand slavery - why it developed, and how it functioned in various societies – is to understand an important and widespread practice in world civilisations. With research traditionally being dominated by the Atlantic world, this collection aims to illuminate slavery that existed in not only the Americas but also ancient, medieval, North and sub-Saharan African, Near Eastern, and Asian societies. Connecting civilisations through migration, warfare, trade routes and economic expansion, the practice of slavery integrated countries and regions through power-based relationships, whilst simultaneously dividing societies by class, race, ethnicity and cultural group. Uncovering slavery as a globalising phenomenon, the authors highlight the slave-trading routes that crisscrossed Africa, helped integrate the Mediterranean world, connected Indian Ocean societies and fused the Atlantic world. Split into five parts, the handbook portrays the evolution of slavery from antiquity to the contemporary era and encourages readers to realise similarities and differences between various manifestations of slavery throughout history. Providing a truly global coverage of slavery, and including thematic injections within each chronological part, this handbook is a comprehensive and transnational resource for all researchers interested in slavery, the history of labour, and anthropology.

Cham: Springer Nature, 2023. 716p.

by Stephan Conermann, Mariana Dias Paes, Roberto Hofmeister Pich and Paulo Cruz Terra

Slavery Studies are one of the most consolidated fields in Brazilian historiography with various discussions on issues like slave agency, slavery and law, slavery and capitalism, slave families, demography of slavery, transatlantic slave trade, abolition etc. Taking into consideration these new trends of Brazilian slavery studies, this volume of collected articles allows leading scholars to present their research to a broader academic community.

Berlin/Boston, DeGruyter, 2023. 347p.

By Sirje Laurel Weldon

A must-read for scholars across a broad sweep of disciplines. Laurel Weldon weaves together skillfully the theoretical strands of gender equality policy, intersectionality, social movements, and representation in a multimethod/level comparative study that unequivocally places women's movements at the center of our understanding of democracy and social change."" ---Amy G. Mazur, Washington State University "Laurel Weldon's When Protest Makes Policy expands and enriches our understanding of representation by stressing social movements as a primary avenue for the representation of marginalized groups. With powerful theory backed by persuasive analysis, it is a must-read for anyone interested in democracy and the representation of marginalized groups." ---Pamela Paxton, University of Texas at Austin ""This is a bold and exciting book. There are many fine scholars who look at women's movements, political theorists who make claims about democracy, and policy analysts who do longitudinal treatments or cross-sectional evaluations of various policies. I know of no one, aside from Weldon, who is comfortable with all three of these roles."" ---David Meyer, University of California, Irvine What role do social movements play in a democracy? Political theorist S. Laurel Weldon demonstrates that social movements provide a hitherto unrecognized form of democratic representation, and thus offer a significant potential for deepening democracy and overcoming social conflict. Through a series of case studies of movements conducted by women, women of color, and workers in the United States and other member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Weldon examines processes of representation at the local, state, and national levels. She concludes that, for systematically disadvantaged groups, social movements can be as important---sometimes more important---for the effective articulation of a group perspective as political parties, interest groups, or the physical presence of group members in legislatures. When Protest Makes Policy contributes to the emerging scholarship on civil society as well as the traditional scholarship on representation. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with advancing social cohesion and deepening democracy and inclusion as well as those concerned with advancing equality for women, ethnic and racial minorities, the working class, and poor people.

Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011. 244p.

By Gilberto Rosas &Virginia Raymond

The Covid-19 emergency only deepens the crisis of inhumanity in the U.S. carceral immigration system. The only way to truly protect migrant lives is to abolish detention.

North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) — Fall 2020 . 289-295, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10714839.2020.1809086

By Rhoda Margesson, Kristin Finklea

Migrant smuggling, also known as human smuggling, refers to the voluntary transportation of an individual across international borders, in violation of one or more countries’ laws. Smugglers facilitate migrant travel, typically in exchange for payment, sometimes using fraudulent identity documents and covert transit. While smuggled migrants agree to be smuggled—a condition that distinguishes the practice from human trafficking—they may be vulnerable to abuse by their smuggler or later become a trafficking victim. Various United Nations (U.N.) sources cite estimates that globally, migrant smuggling totals $7-$10 billion a year or more, but the full extent of the problem is not known. Through oversight hearings and proposed legislation, Congress has sought more information on migrant smuggling and on ways to deter and punish smugglers

Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2021. 3p.

By The United States Government Accountability Office; Rebecca Gambler, et al.

In fiscal year 2021, Border Patrol reported about 1.7 million apprehensions of noncitizens between ports of entry—a 300 percent increase over fiscal year 2020. This included approximately 451,000 apprehensions of family unit members. Compounding this increase were continued concerns related to COVID-19 and physical distancing protocols that imposed space limitations on facilities. To address these concerns and reduce time in custody, Border Patrol and ICE initiated two new processes in 2021, referred to as NTR and parole plus ATD. Border Patrol released family units into the U.S. without first issuing them a charging document—generally a Notice to Appear—which places them into immigration court removal proceedings. Instead, Border Patrol instructed them to report to an ICE field office. ICE officials are to further process family unit members who report to field offices, such as issuing them a Notice to Appear. GAO was asked to review Border Patrol’s and ICE’s implementation of the NTR and parole plus ATD processes. This report describes (1) Border Patrol and ICE implementation of the NTR and parole plus ATD processes, and (2) ICE’s efforts to initiate removal proceedings for family unit members processed with NTRs or under parole plus ATD. GAO analyzed Border Patrol and ICE policies, guidance, and data on individuals processed with an NTR or under parole plus ATD and who reported to ICE as required. GAO also interviewed officials in Border Patrol and ICE headquarters and selected field locations.

Washington, DC: GAO, 2022. 58p.

By Magdalena Kmak

This book analyses the multifaceted ways law operates in the context of human mobility, as well as the ways in which human mobility affects law. Migration law is conventionally understood as a tool to regulate human movement across borders, and to define the rights and limits related to this movement. But drawing upon the emergence and development of the discipline of mobility studies, this book pushes the idea of migration law towards a more general concept of mobility that encompass the various processes, effects, and consequences of movement in a globalized world. In this respect, the book pursues a shift in perspective on how law is understood. Drawing on the concepts of ‘kinology’ and ‘kinopolitics’ developed by Thomas Nail as well as ‘mobility justice’ developed by Mimi Sheller, the book considers movement and motion as a constructive force behind political and social systems; and hence stability that needs to be explained and justified. Tracing the processes through which static forms, such as state, citizenship, or border, are constructed and how they partake in production of differential mobility, the book challenges the conventional understanding of migration law. More specifically, and in revealing its contingent and unstable nature, the book reveals how human mobility is itself constitutive of law. This interdisciplinary book will appeal to those working in the areas of migration and refugee law, citizenship studies, mobility studies, legal theory, and sociolegal studies.

Abington, Oxon: New York: Routledge, 2024. 205p.

By Abigail Andrews And the students of the Mexican Migration Field Research Program

The world is changing so fast that it's hard to know how to think about what we ought to do. We barely have time to reflect on how scientific advances will affect our lives before they're upon us. New kinds of dilemma are springing up. Can robots be held responsible for their actions? Will artificial intelligence be able to predict criminal activity? Is the future gender-fluid? Should we strive to become post-human? Should we use drugs to improve our intimate relationships — or to reduce crime? Our intuitions about questions like these are often both weak and confused. David Edmonds has put together a philosophical task force to get to grips with these challenges. Twenty-nine philosophers present provocative and engaging pieces about aspects of life today, and life tomorrow — birth and death, health and medicine, brain and body, personal relationships, wrongdoing and justice, the internet, animals, and the environment. The future won't look the same when you've finished this book.

Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2023.

By Nicole MartinRogers

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force was created to examine the root causes, systemic problems, and potential solutions to violence against indigenous women and girls in Minnesota, including members of the two spirit community. Established by the Minnesota Legislature and signed into law by Governor Tim Walz in 2019, the task force includes representatives from 11 tribal nations, community and advocacy organizations, legislators, law enforcement, and the legal field. Wilder Research assisted the task force, conducting extensive research and facilitating public hearings and comment sessions across Minnesota.

The report includes 20 mandates in five key areas from the task force for the Minnesota Legislature, state agencies, tribes, and other stakeholders to address the MMIW injustice:

• Address systemic causes

• Collect and report data on violence against Indigenous women and girls

• Address policies and practices in institutions that impact violence against Indigenous women and girls

• Reduce and eliminate violence against Indigenous women and girls

• Help Indigenous women and girls who are victims/survivors, their families, and their communities

St. Paul, MN: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, 2020. 163p

Canada Privy Council Office

The National Inquiry’s Final Report reveals that persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada’s staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. The two volume report calls for transformative legal and social changes to resolve the crisis that has devastated Indigenous communities across the country.

The Final Report is comprised of the truths of more than 2,380 family members, survivors of violence, experts and Knowledge Keepers shared over two years of cross-country public hearings and evidence gathering. It delivers 231 individual Calls for Justice directed at governments, institutions, social service providers, industries and all Canadians.

As documented in the Final Report, testimony from family members and survivors of violence spoke about a surrounding context marked by multigenerational and intergenerational trauma and marginalization in the form of poverty, insecure housing or homelessness and barriers to education, employment, health care and cultural support. Experts and Knowledge Keepers spoke to specific colonial and patriarchal policies that displaced women from their traditional roles in communities and governance and diminished their status in society, leaving them vulnerable to violence.

Ottawa, Canada Privy Council Office, 2019. Vol. 1a: 2019, 728p. Vol. 1b, 2019. 352p.

Canada Privy Council Office

The National Inquiry’s Final Report reveals that persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada’s staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. The two volume report calls for transformative legal and social changes to resolve the crisis that has devastated Indigenous communities across the country.

The Final Report is comprised of the truths of more than 2,380 family members, survivors of violence, experts and Knowledge Keepers shared over two years of cross-country public hearings and evidence gathering. It delivers 231 individual Calls for Justice directed at governments, institutions, social service providers, industries and all Canadians.

As documented in the Final Report, testimony from family members and survivors of violence spoke about a surrounding context marked by multigenerational and intergenerational trauma and marginalization in the form of poverty, insecure housing or homelessness and barriers to education, employment, health care and cultural support. Experts and Knowledge Keepers spoke to specific colonial and patriarchal policies that displaced women from their traditional roles in communities and governance and diminished their status in society, leaving them vulnerable to violence.

Ottawa, Canada Privy Council Office, 2019. Vol. 1a: 2019, 728p. Vol. 1b, 2019. 352p.

By Emily J. Hanson

Across many countries and in the United States, Indigenous peoples—women and girls in particular—are disproportionately affected by violence. In the United States, for example, 84% of American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) women and 82% of AI/AN men reported experiencing violent victimizations in their lifetime. Studies have also shown that Native American children are more likely to experience abuse and trauma than their non-Native peers. Additionally, as of June 2023, 3.5% of the missing persons included in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) were identified as AI/AN, which was more than three times their percentage in the U.S. population (1.1%). Advocacy by Native American and other Indigenous communities has brought increased attention to experiences of violence in Indigenous communities using the terms Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). This report provides an overview of recent research and commonly cited barriers to addressing MMIP, background on legislation and programming to improve data collection and criminal justice services for Native Americans, and selected policy issues Congress may consider when conducting oversight or considering legislation related to MMIP. In recent years, the federal government has made efforts to address MMIP and the high rate of violence experienced by Native Americans. This report provides background on these issues, including an in-depth review of major sources of data on missing Native Americans and violent victimizations. Data sources include the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, as well as federal databases tracking missing persons. These data sources present a consistent picture of high rates of violent victimization of Native Americans. The report then discusses three common barriers to the federal government’s and criminal justice systems’ ability to fully understand and address MMIP. The first potential barrier is the relative lack of culturally specific services for Native American crime victims who live outside of tribal lands. Second, complicated jurisdictional overlaps between federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement can lead to confusion regarding responsibility for investigations and prosecutions of crimes that occur on tribal land and can lead to loss of time and inefficient use of resources. The third barrier concerns gaps in the criminal justice data about MMIP. The report next discusses federal legislation and initiatives related to MMIP, including alerts for missing persons, efforts to encourage collaboration across federal agencies and with tribal governments, and efforts to improve data collection. This section covers Operation Lady Justice, which was created by Executive Order 13898, and the recently launched U.S. Department of the Interior Missing and Murdered Unit. Recent federal legislation to address MMIP is also discussed, including Savanna’s Act (P.L. 116-165) and the Not Invisible Act of 2019 (P.L. 116-166). The report concludes with a discussion of MMIP issues policymakers might consider when conducting oversight or considering legislation.

Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2023. 43p.