A Temporal Experience of Indefinite Detention

June 13, 2023 8:17 AM

For those under electronic surveillance, the walls of a detention center reproduce themselves through technology that is heavily intertwined with migrants’ physical bodies. Immigration authorities are ever-present in the form of a bulky monitoring device strapped to one’s ankle or a smartphone app that demands you take a selfie and upload it at a certain time of day. People enrolled in Alternatives to Detention must keep these technologies charged and fully functioning in order to check in with their supervisors. For some, this dynamic transfers the role of an immigration officer onto migrants themselves. Migrants become a subject of state-sanctioned surveillance — as well as their own enforcers of it. from When your body becomes the border by Erica Hellerstein
posted by chavenet (6 comments total)

This is cruel and unusual in a way that could not have been imagined when the concept of cruel and unusual was created.
posted by mhoye at 9:39 AM on June 13, 2023 [7 favorites]

Easy to imagine this being extended to anyone who ever has to interact with the more hostile parts of the state. In fact, economics of scale pretty much demand it.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:52 AM on June 13, 2023 [7 favorites]

Easy to imagine this being extended to anyone who ever has to interact with the more hostile parts of the state.

This. And it's not limited to literal security or policing. It's everything from immigration applications, border control, renewing a passport or any other type of registration that has a human interacting with a faceless bureaucratic government system.

Whether its lack of concern about how old and dated so much of the technology surrounding these systems or intentional underfunding. These systems harm the most vulnerable parts of our society, and it makes me want to scream whenever I brush up against it.

Even something as simple as uploading a photo for an application can become an exercise in futility. And its not just the emotional or physical stress that can result from engaging with these systems. It can also destroy your finances.

For example, my partner spent upwards of $150 on a very specific type of photo required for her permanent residency application b/c we had to resubmit to the same website portal b/c it was being rejected (we never really got a reason why) and then said photo has a limited usage time and then it requires more time and money to go to some the local Office Depot to get another photo to try to submit on a website that doesnt' work during the day, so we set an alarm to try to submit at 2 a.m. b/c thats the only time the site has slower traffic and isn't crashing.

Shit like this that makes you feel trapped and broken by a system designed to harm.

I've dealt with both the US and Canadian immigration system and the cruelty is the point. Nothing about this essay was surprising.
posted by Fizz at 12:59 PM on June 13, 2023 [16 favorites]

And we were lucky enough to have an immigration lawyer (to help make navigate the system and make the paperwork easier to understand) and still the system finds a way of fucking you up and causing immense stress and emotional harm. 4.5 years later and permanent residency was approved. Such a lovely system we have.
posted by Fizz at 1:06 PM on June 13, 2023 [6 favorites]

Then there's this.
posted by hypnogogue at 9:16 AM on June 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

What a nightmare that Covenant app story is. All of these systems are so broken and adding technology into that mix only seems to make things worse. Ugh.
posted by Fizz at 1:17 PM on June 15, 2023 [1 favorite]