Stanley-Eric-Captive-Genders-Trans-Embodiment-and-Prison-Industrial-Complex

Captive Gendersat being lumped with inmates in yellow jumpsuits reflects the ways inwhich the realities of prison have been dematerialized for gay and lesbianimmigrants like her. That dematerialization is furthered by the discoursearound LGBT immigration, which only emphasizes what the UAFA alreadydid up front, and the bonds of “love,” and erases the reality that gaysand lesbians are also workers. 6At the time of this writing, immigration activists of all stripes arecalling for much-needed reform to the current immigration system. Butincreasingly these calls for reform are being made within affective callsto reward the bonds of immigrant families instead of emphasizing thetruth that most Americans seem unwilling to confront: that the crisis inimmigration will not go away as long as we enable the severe exploitationof immigrants that enables America’s neoliberal—and severely worsening—economy.The excessive priority given to Shirley Tan and her familysignals a neoliberal state that strategically deploys sexual identities andthe affective discourses around them as tools with which to build up newcategories of exclusion while erasing the realities of the exploitation oflabor that enables the status quo.Padilla’s experiences are more typical of what happens to undocumentedimmigrants caught by ICE. Not only are ankle bracelets par forthe course, but most undocumented immigrants are raided in their workplacesor homes and hunted down brutally and “disappeared.” Until 2007,undocumented parents and children were incarcerated at the infamousTexas Hutto Center, where children were threatened with separation fromtheir families as a disciplinary measure. Tan, in contrast, was able to returnto her suburban home and family. Padilla’s arrest was predetermined bya history of the state’s surveillance and instant deportation of undocumentedpeople; his DUI arrest formally made him a “bad” immigrant, buthis personal history as a young Mexican had already marked him as such. 7Many undocumented people, for instance, become such by simplyliving here on expired visas, and, for that reason, what many describeas a “broken system” is in fact an advantage for those who need to remainunder the radar. At the same time, the lack of access to benefitslike healthcare and the real dangers of being exposed while traveling orworking make the life of an undocumented person fraught with peril ona daily basis. The undocumented “alien” is always a prospect for arrest, bysheer dint of the multiple webs of laws and surveillance mechanisms thatexist primarily to make the presence of the undocumented visible. Butall this can be significantly alleviated by circumstances of class and access,126