ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on immigration as an issue central to the unfinished queer agenda. Since the 2016 presidential election, attacks against immigrants have rapidly escalated. Like most escalations, the most impacted communities, are those who are already the most vulnerable. Trans immigrants are consistently among those who are most vulnerable to draconian immigration enforcement and this moment is no exception. Although the enforcement of deportations, ice raids, travel bans and hateful rhetoric has increased, its justifications rely on a carefully constructed legal and legislative infrastructure, constructed over time, to distinguish between good/desirable and bad/undesirable immigrants. Using an intersectional framework Gehi and Arkles argue that the “criminal alien” paradigm is a key supporting piece of this infrastructure because of its reliance on policing and criminalization and by extension a hierarchy of race, class, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability. Trump’s executive orders targeting immigrants have been met with a wide range of resistance including litigation, the creation of sanctuary spaces and bystander intervention. The authors examine the strengths and weaknesses of these various strategies, with a particular focus on the ways in which these tactics might rely on and reify the criminal alien paradigm while unconsciously devaluing the lives of immigrants who are disproportionately policed – including trans immigrants. Although we must utilize every opportunity challenge Trumps unconstitutional detentions and deportations it is imperative that we create a unified safety and solidarity that includes all immigrant communities.
