The Slow Violence of Immigration Court : Procedural Justice on Trial

**The arduous, confusing and fraught journey that immigrants take through immigration court** Each year, hundreds of thousands of migrants are moved through immigration court. With a national backlog surpassing one million cases, court hearings take years and most migrants will eventually be ordered deported. __The Slow Violence of Immigration Court__ sheds light on the experiences of migrants from the “Northern Triangle” (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) as they navigate legal processes, deportation proceedings, immigration court, and the immigration system writ large. Grounded in the illuminating stories of people facing deportation, the family members who support them, and the attorneys who defend them, __The Slow Violence of Immigration Court__ invites readers to question matters of fairness and justice and the fear of living with the threat of deportation. Although the spectacle of violence created by family separation and deportation is perceived as extreme and unprecedented, these long legal proceedings are masked in the mundane and are often overlooked, ignored, and excused. In an urgent call to action, Maya Pagni Barak deftly demonstrates that deportation and family separation are not abhorrent anomalies, but are a routine, slow form of violence at the heart of the U.S. immigration system. Contents Introduction 1 Modern-Day Deportation 2 Justice and Immigration Court 3 Tracing Immigrant Legal Consciousness 4 Who Says the Court Can’t Be Fair? 5 Deportation Hearings, Legitimacy, and the Rule of Law 6 The Case for Substantive Justice Conclusion: Reimagining Deportation Epilogue Acknowledgments Appendix: Interview Protocols Notes Index About the Author