The Migrant's Jail: An American History of Mass Incarceration

by Brianna Nofil

Today, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains an average of 37,000 migrants each night. To do so, they rely on, and pay for, the use of hundreds of local jails. But this is nothing new: the federal government has been detaining migrants in city and county jails for more than 100 years. In The Migrant’s Jail, Brianna Nofil examines how a century of political, ideological, and economic exchange between the U.S. immigration bureaucracy and the criminal justice system gave rise to the world’s largest system of migrant incarceration. Migrant detention is not simply an outgrowth of mass incarceration; rather, it has propelled carceral state–building and fostered intergovernmental policing efforts since the turn of the twentieth century.

From the incarceration of Chinese migrants in New York in the 1900s and 1910s to the jailing of Caribbean refugees in Gulf South lockups of the 1980s and 1990s, federal immigration authorities provided communities with a cash windfall that they used to cut taxes, reward local officials, and build bigger jails—which they then had incentive to fill. Trapped in America’s patchwork detention networks, migrants turned to courts, embassies, and the media to challenge the cruel paradox of “administrative imprisonment.” Drawing on immigration records, affidavits, protest letters, and a variety of local sources, Nofil excavates the web of political negotiations, financial deals, and legal precedents that allows the United States to incarcerate migrants with little accountability and devastating consequences.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published October 22, 2024

About the author

A historian of the modern United States, with a focus on migration, incarceration, and law, Brianna Nofil is an Assistant Professor of History at the College of William & Mary. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2020 and holds B.A.s in History and Public Policy Studies from Duke University.

Reviews

[Brian Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incisive, wide-ranging, and ultimately sad story about the century-long connection between two of our country’s most broken systems: immigration and incarceration. This book traverses across the the 20th century (plus some) to show how local towns, police, and sheriffs worked creatively (and often cravenly) with federal government agencies to incarcerate immigrants, including those who arrived legally or who made legitimate claims to legal status. From Chinese immigrants in New York, to Cubans in Florida, to Mexicans in Texas, we see an ever-growing web of small towns, counties, and sheriffs who make deals with federal immigration enforcement - you pay us $$$ to keep our towns, police, and jails afloat, and we’ll keep migrants deemed illegal in jail for you.

Of course the topics are complex. They involve people and the most complex situations we can imagine. That’s why immigration and incarceration require careful and caring discussion, not slogans. This book is such a great eye-opener toward that sympathy and understanding.

[Meaghan Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one!! I think she did a wonderful job of balancing a variety of factors that impact her argument. Also her throughline was very clear and made this an easy and enjoyable read. Really big fan of her writing style!

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!!!