A. Naomi Paik Knihy

"Just days after taking the White House, Donald Trump signed three executive orders targeting noncitizens-authorizing the Muslim Ban, the border wall, and ICE raids. The new administration's approach towards noncitizens was defined by bans, walls, and raids. This is the essential primer on how we got here, and what we must do to create a different future. Bans, Walls, Raids, Sanctuary shows that these features have a long history and have long harmed all of us and our relationships to each other. The 45th president's xenophobic, racist, ableist, patriarchal ascendancy is no aberration, but the consequence of two centuries of U.S. political, economic, and social culture. Further, as A. Naomi Paik deftly demonstrates, the attacks against migrants are tightly bound to assaults against women, people of color, workers, ill and disabled people, queer and gender non-conforming people. These attacks are neither un-American nor unique. By showing how the problems we face today are embedded in the very foundation of the US, this book is a rallying cry for a broad-based, abolitionist sanctuary movement for all"--

The book examines the history of U.S. prison camps that strip detainees of legal and civil rights, rendering them effectively rightless. It highlights a paradox in which the U.S. claims to uphold inalienable rights while simultaneously establishing a system that marginalizes certain populations perceived as threats. This exploration reveals how America's identity as a protector of rights is intertwined with its practices of imprisonment, illustrating the complexities of power and rights in a global context.