ABSTRACT
This article recounts the story of sanctuary city organizing in Ottawa, Canada to explore the politics and potential of a transformative approach to sanctuary rooted in anti-prison activism and abolitionist feminist thought. More specifically, we have adapted the abolitionist framework of reformist reform and non-reformist reform and applied it to sanctuary city organizing. Analysis of the Ottawa case draws on research with frontline service providers and migrant justice organizers, as well as our own organizing experiences, observations, and adaptive practices as sanctuary city campaigners. The paper also elaborates on the forms of solidarity and citizenship that have emerged or have the potential to emerge in the context of a non-state centric vision of sanctuary that prioritizes grassroots transformative practices over municipal policy and that do not bolster or legitimize the state’s capacity to deport, punish, and exclude.
