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American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons
Before September 11, 2001, few Americans had heard of immigration detention, but in fact a secret and repressive prison system run by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has existed in this country for more than two decades. In American Gulag, prisoners, jailers, and whistle-blowing federal officials come forward to describe the frightening reality inside these INS facilities. Journalist Mark Dow's on-the-ground reporting brings to light documented cases of illegal beatings and psychological torment, prolonged detention, racism, and inhumane conditions. Intelligent, impassioned, and unlike anything that has been written on the topic, this gripping work of investigative journalism should be read by all Americans. It is a book that will change the way we see our country.
American Gulag takes us inside prisons such as the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, the Corrections Corporation of America's Houston Processing Center, and county jails around the country that profit from contracts to hold INS prisoners. It contains disturbing in-depth profiles of detainees, including Emmy Kutesa, a defector from the Ugandan army who was tortured and then escaped to the United States, where he was imprisoned in Queens, and then undertook a hunger strike in protest. To provide a framework for understanding stories like these, Dow gives a brief history of immigration laws and practices in the United States—including the repercussions of September 11 and present-day policies. His book reveals that current immigration detentions are best understood not as a well-intentioned response to terrorism but rather as part of the larger context of INS secrecy and excessive authority.
American Gulag exposes the full story of a cruel prison system that is operating today with an astonishing lack of accountability.
American Gulag takes us inside prisons such as the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, the Corrections Corporation of America's Houston Processing Center, and county jails around the country that profit from contracts to hold INS prisoners. It contains disturbing in-depth profiles of detainees, including Emmy Kutesa, a defector from the Ugandan army who was tortured and then escaped to the United States, where he was imprisoned in Queens, and then undertook a hunger strike in protest. To provide a framework for understanding stories like these, Dow gives a brief history of immigration laws and practices in the United States—including the repercussions of September 11 and present-day policies. His book reveals that current immigration detentions are best understood not as a well-intentioned response to terrorism but rather as part of the larger context of INS secrecy and excessive authority.
American Gulag exposes the full story of a cruel prison system that is operating today with an astonishing lack of accountability.
426 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 2, 2008
Every American needs to read this book!! Mark Dow is a prize-winning poet and journalist, this is a very well-written book about a very serious social injustice that goes on on a large scale right under our noses.
November 27, 2012
Tremendously sad. As a criminal defense lawyer, and as someone who advises my office on immigration consequences of criminal convictions, i am also sad to say that I have seen and dealt with similar experiences of clients, both in federal detention and in our county jail system. I have seen officers in jail, and in the court room, treat prisoners (county prisoners) like dirt beneath their feet. Of course, there are others who are decent and courteous. I have dealt with many noncitizens who have spent long periods of time in federal detention for a conviction of a minor crime. I am personally aware of one individual who served his 100 days for possession of a small quantity of cocaine for personal use (yes, Americans aren't the only ones with drug addictions), who then spent seven years in federal immigration custody. The maximum state sentence for his crime, by the way, is three years. I could go on, but I think this is enough for starters. I have no problem with punishment for one's crimes. But many of the people who Re in immigration custody have committed no crime, other than being here undocumented for one reason or another. I know persons picked up for driving without a license (often an infraction in California in the first instance) who have then been taken into interminable federal immigration custody. For anyone interested in what happens just below our view, this is a must read. That such should exist in this country is shameful.
December 23, 2017
This book is powerful, important, terrifying, and a hundred pages too long. I've visited a number of immigration detention facilities doing pro bono work and really valued the depth of research and variety of perspectives provided in this book. Dow talked to the people who were detained as well as those that did the detaining and presented as much of their own words as possible. I still found myself wondering what has changed as of today - I kept hoping for an epilogue.
June 17, 2017
I can't even put into words how important this book is. Immigration detention is near invisible in this country and Dow brings years and years of intimate investigation to light. Incredibly frustrating and eye-opening book that everyone should read. I can't even write a proper review. Just read it.
May 25, 2011
This book was well researched and provided many detailed accounts of detained immigrants who are being held by the INS.
August 22, 2025
Mark Dow’s American Gulag, despite being 2 decades old now, is still a relevant read. Dow explores the world of INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) which shortly after that was broken up into DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Dow’s exploration of INS paints a truly disturbing history. This is a history of torture, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse and harassment, and maltreatment of inmates by the officers there. There are cases, notably Abner Louima, where his abusers were arrested but this is not the norm. You can find out more about his case which constraints graphic details that evoke the same themes I described earlier: https://exhibits.stanford.edu/saythei...
Dow focuses on how much of the INS’s actions in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 were motivated by a desire to show the American public the government was ‘doing something’ rather than a more effective slow and steady approach. This meant that a large number of people were detained, with often little evidence, for extended periods of time in already crowded facilities. Many of these people were also Arab and/or Muslim and were likely stopped due to the rise of post 9/11 Islamophobia. The INS also expanded its powers to be able to detain aliens in ‘extreme or extraordinary circumstances’ for an indefinite period of time; there were no cases where people detained in this fashion were found in connection to 9/11.
Despite detention centers and jails being different institutions, as Dow explains, they are de facto the same for those on the inside, both detainees and guards. Disturbingly, the INS cooperated with private prisons which he dedicated several chapters to. Private prisons are different from other prisons in that they exist for profit, and cite ‘public scrutiny’ as one of their main concerns. Torture like conditions are found at private prisons whose own brutality has led to guards and nurses quitting. Rather amusingly, or at least amusing as a situation as dark as this can be, one of the nurses that Dow interviewed was fired because she ended up marrying one of the Indian men protesting the conditions of the institution on hunger strike! The corporations he refers to in his book have changed in the 2 decades since publishing. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is now known as CoreCivic, the Wackenhut Corporation is now known as the Geo Group, and the Correction Services Corporation was bought/absorbed by the Geo Group in 2005.
In the later chapters Dow discusses the issues of aliens whose home country will not accept them back. In this case the INS has attempted to argue that they should be held indefinitely. This was challenged in court and the supreme ultimately ruled against the INS, stating that continuous efforts needed to be made to ensure detainees had somewhere to go. The case can be read here: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/fede...
Whilst there are cases where an alien cannot return to their home country due to political reasons, i.e. if they were part of a political party that is being purged as a result of a coup, there are other more complicated cases. The supreme court case specifically describes Zadvydas v. Davis. Zadvydas was born to Lithuanian refugee parents in a displaced persons camp on German soil after WW2. His parents moved to the US where he lived for 40 years before being detained and was unable to be sent back to Germany or Lithuania. The other case cited by Dow was of Somali immigrants in Minnesota, whose home country lacks a central government. Zadvydas was eventually released in the US, while several Somali aliens, including one who didn’t know Somali, were sent to Somalia.
Dow’s work is especially relevant now, 2025, given the 2nd Trump administration’s extremely aggressive actions towards aliens in the country. The focus on deportations becomes more apparent when the Zadvydas ruling is understood. Because the administration legally cannot detain aliens indefinitely, they are instead attempting to force them out, or encourage them to leave themselves. This has led to them running into different legal challenges than before. The issue now has to do with the deportation of individuals whose crimes to warrant their deportation have not even been determined in a court of law, the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the one of the most well known at the moment. There are many organizations listed by Dow that work towards supporting aliens waiting to be processed and integrated into the US. I will list some of them here: the ACLU, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. Dow’s work has, sadly, aged well and shows an important background for the ongoing actions of the second Trump administration.
Dow focuses on how much of the INS’s actions in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 were motivated by a desire to show the American public the government was ‘doing something’ rather than a more effective slow and steady approach. This meant that a large number of people were detained, with often little evidence, for extended periods of time in already crowded facilities. Many of these people were also Arab and/or Muslim and were likely stopped due to the rise of post 9/11 Islamophobia. The INS also expanded its powers to be able to detain aliens in ‘extreme or extraordinary circumstances’ for an indefinite period of time; there were no cases where people detained in this fashion were found in connection to 9/11.
Despite detention centers and jails being different institutions, as Dow explains, they are de facto the same for those on the inside, both detainees and guards. Disturbingly, the INS cooperated with private prisons which he dedicated several chapters to. Private prisons are different from other prisons in that they exist for profit, and cite ‘public scrutiny’ as one of their main concerns. Torture like conditions are found at private prisons whose own brutality has led to guards and nurses quitting. Rather amusingly, or at least amusing as a situation as dark as this can be, one of the nurses that Dow interviewed was fired because she ended up marrying one of the Indian men protesting the conditions of the institution on hunger strike! The corporations he refers to in his book have changed in the 2 decades since publishing. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is now known as CoreCivic, the Wackenhut Corporation is now known as the Geo Group, and the Correction Services Corporation was bought/absorbed by the Geo Group in 2005.
In the later chapters Dow discusses the issues of aliens whose home country will not accept them back. In this case the INS has attempted to argue that they should be held indefinitely. This was challenged in court and the supreme ultimately ruled against the INS, stating that continuous efforts needed to be made to ensure detainees had somewhere to go. The case can be read here: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/fede...
Whilst there are cases where an alien cannot return to their home country due to political reasons, i.e. if they were part of a political party that is being purged as a result of a coup, there are other more complicated cases. The supreme court case specifically describes Zadvydas v. Davis. Zadvydas was born to Lithuanian refugee parents in a displaced persons camp on German soil after WW2. His parents moved to the US where he lived for 40 years before being detained and was unable to be sent back to Germany or Lithuania. The other case cited by Dow was of Somali immigrants in Minnesota, whose home country lacks a central government. Zadvydas was eventually released in the US, while several Somali aliens, including one who didn’t know Somali, were sent to Somalia.
Dow’s work is especially relevant now, 2025, given the 2nd Trump administration’s extremely aggressive actions towards aliens in the country. The focus on deportations becomes more apparent when the Zadvydas ruling is understood. Because the administration legally cannot detain aliens indefinitely, they are instead attempting to force them out, or encourage them to leave themselves. This has led to them running into different legal challenges than before. The issue now has to do with the deportation of individuals whose crimes to warrant their deportation have not even been determined in a court of law, the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the one of the most well known at the moment. There are many organizations listed by Dow that work towards supporting aliens waiting to be processed and integrated into the US. I will list some of them here: the ACLU, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. Dow’s work has, sadly, aged well and shows an important background for the ongoing actions of the second Trump administration.
March 8, 2025
This book was background reading for my novel The Mutiny of the American Foreign Legion. I didn't finish it because the stories of abuse are harrowing, and because it's just one of my many sources.
One of the most insidious abuses is the sedation, by biddable medical professionals, of people who challenge their imprisonment. In other words, people who try to stand up for themselves are labelled as mentally disordered and forcibly medicated. A more general problem is that the prisoners’ offences are typically administrative rather than criminal, meaning that the process is opaque and riddled with conflicts of interest.
Overall, the book is important documentation of these abuses, but it's not an easy read.
One of the most insidious abuses is the sedation, by biddable medical professionals, of people who challenge their imprisonment. In other words, people who try to stand up for themselves are labelled as mentally disordered and forcibly medicated. A more general problem is that the prisoners’ offences are typically administrative rather than criminal, meaning that the process is opaque and riddled with conflicts of interest.
Overall, the book is important documentation of these abuses, but it's not an easy read.
November 16, 2024
Great book, illustrating that you'd have to be really, really desperate to want to move to America to live. Asylum seekers, long-term residents and even US citizens are detained indefinitely and treated worse than animals. What they learn is that lies, vicious bullying and denial of justice is more the American way of life rather than the freedom and democracy that they were expecting.
December 6, 2019
read about half of it. basically a journalistic account of migrant detention. some is outdated. its undertheorized. some of it is sort of sensationalized and sounds a little bit racist now 15 years late. but a really important document at the time it was written i think.
May 11, 2007
Great book, illustrating that you'd have to be really, really desperate to want to move to America to live. Asylum seekers, long-term residents and even US citizens are detained indefinitely and treated worse than animals. What they learn is that lies, vicious bullying and denial of justice is more the American way of life rather than the freedom and democracy that they were expecting.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews