Gendered Authority and Abuses of Power in US Immigration Detention in the Early Twentieth Century

Lauren D. Catterson, University of Toronto

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents’ mistreatment of migrants in US detention facilities has garnered condemnation and complaints from migrant rights activists and organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union in recent years, especially in the last five years. But while the abuse of migrants by US immigration officials in detention facilities is often in the news today, it is a longstanding problem. Indeed, one that stretches back almost to the inception of the federal US immigration service. Drawing primarily on US Bureau of Immigration misconduct investigation records, my paper examines alleged cases of official misconduct in early twentieth century US immigration detention and how the US Immigration Service responded to such allegations. In particular, I focus on cases in which watchmen allegedly verbally, physically, and sexually abused detained immigrant women, paying close attention to the exercise of gendered authority and relations between detained immigrant women, watchmen, and matrons. Concerned about regulating morality, the Immigration Service separated detained men and women spatially in early twentieth century immigration detention facilities. Watchmen supervised the male detention quarters while detained women and children were under the watchful eye of matrons. My paper emphasizes a troubling lack of agency oversight in detention facilities and argues that the Immigration Service expected matrons to maintain a close watch of watchmen and protect vulnerable detained immigrant women from abusive watchmen. This paper contributes to the growing scholarly work on US immigration detention in the first half of the twentieth century and it engages with the 2021 SSHA conference theme of “Crisis, Conjunctures, Turning Points: Theory and Method in Turbulent Times” by historicizing official misconduct and violence against detained immigrants, especially women, and highlighting longstanding problems in US immigration detention. With regard to sessions, this paper is a good fit for Immigration/Migration and Women, Gender and Sexuality.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 237. Migration, Regulation, Exclusion, and Control at and within Borders