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The Institutional Hearing Program: A Study of Prison-Based Immigration Courts in the United States
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Abstract
This article presents the findings of the first research study of the Institutional Hearing Program (IHP), a prison-based immigration court system run by the U.S. Department of Justice. Although the IHP has existed for four decades, little is publicly known about the program's origin, development, or significance. Based on original analysis of archival records, this study makes three central contributions. First, it traces the origin and growth of the IHP within federal, state, and municipal correctional facilities. Notably, although the IHP began in 1980 as a program to deport Cuban asylum seekers held in civil detention in an Atlanta prison, it now operates to deport noncitizens serving prison sentences in twenty-three federal prisons, nineteen state prison systems, and a few municipal jails. Second, this article uncovers the crucial role that prison-based immigration courts have played in shaping the design of carceral institutions around the priorities of an immigration system that primarily targets Latinos for deportation. Third, this article shows how immigration courts embedded in carceral spaces have served as influential, yet overlooked, incubators of changes to immigration law and practice that today apply to all immigration courts, not just the IHP. These findings have important implications for contemporary understandings of the relationship between immigration detention, racialized control of migration, and penal punishment.
- Type
- Special Issue: Immigration Detention
- Information
- Copyright
- © 2020 Law and Society Association.
Footnotes
This article benefitted from insightful feedback from Heidi Altman, Jennifer Chacón, Susan Coutin, David Hausman, Anil Kalhan, Máximo Langer, Keramet Reiter, Christine Scott-Hayward, Claudia Valenzuela, Emma Winger, and anonymous reviewers. We also thank participants at the Law & Society Association's annual conference and the Southern California Criminal Justice Roundtable. We are particularly grateful to Adam Cohen, Jodi Kruger, Elyse Meyers, Jessica Sonley, Mónica Reyes-Santiago, Skyler Terrebonne, and the expert research staff at UCLA's Hugh and Hazel Darling Law Library for their exemplary research assistance. This project was supported by a Research Enabling Grant from the Council on Research at the University of California.
References
References: Articles and Books
Cases and Court Documents
Government Reports and Legislative History
Historic News Articles
Public Records Obtained by Authors
Statutes and Regulations
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