Thread by @MigrationCollab

THE CASE FOR ABOLITIONIST SANCTUARY (a thread) 1/11

In BANS, WALLS, RAIDS, SANCTUARY: UNDERSTANDING US IMMIGRATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY, MiSC’s @ANaomiPaik contextualizes Trump Era Immigration policies as a consequence of two centuries of U.S. political, economic, & social culture. 2/11 ucpress.edu/book/978052030…

Paik demonstrates that attacks against migrants are linked to assaults against women, POC, workers, ill & disabled people, and queer people. And since these issues have such deep historical roots, they won't just disappear b/c Trump left office bit.ly/3a6ABzU

She notes: "the work cannot be confined to reacting to each new crisis, or even to focusing on immigration alone. Indeed, the past offers cautionary lessons of limited, “winnable” reforms that have actually exacerbated the conditions feeding the demands for bans, walls, & raids."

If we actually want systemic change, then we have to contend with these issues systemically—or, as Dr. Angela Davis tells us, to “grasp things at the root.” Paik draws from Davis to argue for abolitionist sanctuary (5/11) : vimeo.com/470300388.

“Abolitionist Sanctuary connects sanctuary’s radical welcome, its judgment-free embrace of anyone, to abolition, defined as social justice organizing that seeks to tear down oppressive power structures like prison systems and build a just, equitable world in their place.” 6/11

“Sanctuary is also building on the work of, and forging connections to other movements, like those affiliated with BLM that fight against policing, prisons, surveillance, & other forms of state & capitalist violence."-@ANaomiPaik

“Sanctuary must become more expansive if it is to be effective,” Paik notes, and that “ An abolitionist sanctuary cannot focus solely on the foreign-born, or race and immigration status, but must undo the structures through which people become targeted.” 8/11

A world where abolitionist sanctuary is widely practiced—indeed, a world where so much would need to be transformed— may be difficult to imagine... (9 of 11)

But, Paik notes, we are not without historical examples: “like nineteenth-century abolitionists and advocates for Reconstruction, who engaged in a radical imagining of a transformed society paired with concrete proposals and actions.” 10/11