Book Review: The Slow Violence of Immigration Court: Procedural Justice on Trial by Maya Pagni Barak
| Published date | 01 May 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13624806231196691 |
| Author | RV Gundur |
| Date | 01 May 2024 |
Book Reviews
Maya Pagni Barak, The Slow Violence of Immigration Court: Procedural Justice on Trial, New York
University Press: New York, 2023; 240 pp.: 9781479821044, $30 (pbk)
Reviewed by: RV Gundur, University of the West of Scotland, UK
Immigration is a perennial hot-button political concern in the United States (and much of
the western world). Conservative politicians especially attempt to build political capital
by framing migrants as inherently criminogenic, despite evidence to the contrary.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the public is largely ignorant of how immigration
courts work, and indifferent to the experiences of those who are tried through these
courts. Immigration critics particularly, despite loving to blame unauthorized migrants
for myriad societal ills and decrying those who fail to migrate “the right way”by
waiting for difficult-to-impossible-to-get visas, understand little about the migrants them-
selves. Lost in the public discourse is any understanding of not only why people may
migrate without authorization, but also how immigration courts, and the rules migrants
face, drive some migrants’decision making. Almost entirely ignored in the dominant
public discourse is how the migrants who experience immigration court feel about
their experience and react to it.
Maya Pagni Barak’s book, The Slow Violence of Immigration Court: Procedural
Justice on Trial, offers a concise, accessible account that evenly, clearly, and expertly ela-
borates both how immigration courts work, and how the immigration attorneys and the
Central American migrants she interviewed perceive the processes of the immigration
court. Formed from immigration court observations and interviews with Central
American migrants and immigration attorneys, The Slow Violence of Immigration
Court is an authoritative touchstone that offers both valuable information for those
who are unfamiliar with immigration court, and a convincing account of the limits of pro-
cedural justice in a decidedly American context. It is a focused work with several lessons
that students and researchers ought to take on board.
Barak first teaches us how the immigration system engages in removal (deportation)
proceedings. The Slow Violence of Immigration Court discusses the drivers of migration,
and unauthorized migration, for the Central American migrants whose experiences form
the basis of this book. Barak then teaches us the concept of procedural justice,“the way
regular people perceive their treatment by those in positions of power and control”
Theoretical Criminology
2024, Vol. 28(2) 250–263
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/13624806231196691
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