麻豆影院

Jessica Ordaz argues that citizens should not be surprised by news of abuses, encourages student activism that lies 鈥榓t the heart鈥� of ethnic studies

When the Trump administration announced its family separation policy in April, an immediate public听听ensued, but the move was not unprecedented in U.S. history and it might even recur, a 麻豆影院 professor contends.

Between April and June, more than 2,000 children were separated from their parents upon entering the United States to seek asylum. These separations were the result of the Trump administration鈥檚 鈥渮ero tolerance鈥� family separation policy. On June 20, the president ended the policy, but many children remain separated from their families with no government plan for reunion.听听

Jessica Ordaz, an assistant professor of ethnic studies at CU 麻豆影院, focuses her research on immigrant detention centers in the United States. She says it鈥檚 not uncommon for people to approach her with thoughts about the timeliness of her work. But according to Ordaz, concern about detention centers is not new.听

鈥淚t has a very long history,鈥� Ordaz says, adding that her work 鈥渋sn鈥檛 any more relevant than it was in 1945.鈥澨�

The year 1945 is when El Centro Service Processing Center, the immigrant detention facility at the center of Ordaz鈥檚 new book, opened its doors. The book, which is in progress and is currently titled听The Functions of Immigration Detention: Forced Labor, Transnational Migrant Politics and Punishment in California鈥檚 Imperial Valley, 1939-2014, focuses on this center 鈥渁s a kind of case study.鈥澨�

Located in California鈥檚 Imperial Valley just north of the Mexican border, El Centro housed predominately male Central American asylum seekers from the 1980s onwards. It closed its doors in 2014 to make way for a larger, privatized, co-ed center further south near Calexico, California.听

Rather than looking at the rise of immigrant detention centers, Ordaz鈥檚 work focuses on their 鈥渇unction,鈥� the role they play in society. While acknowledging recent changes in detention center infrastructure and increased number of detainees because of the Trump administration, she says that 鈥渢here has always been state violence鈥� propagated by detention centers, and that it鈥檚 critical to address its roots.听

鈥淭racing the archival trail of El Centro and other detention centers of its type reveal certain patterns of both activism and abuse,鈥� Ordaz says. Detainees in El Centro resisted their imprisonment in many forms, one being the hunger strike. One such event occurred at El Centro in 1985, and is central to Ordaz鈥檚 research.听

The strike in question was particularly about inhumane working conditions, like forced outside labor in over 110-degree heat.听

The activism of detainees against 鈥渁nother form of bondage鈥� is central to the story of violence, and is therefore key to Ordaz鈥檚 work, which focuses on migrant stories and voices.

She says activism is also responsible for progress made toward gaining rights for minorities thus far, and that topic will be the focus of a class Ordaz is teaching this upcoming spring.听

Ordaz says that this class will engage with 鈥渟ystemic and cultural forms of conversation and activism鈥� in the United States, and is unique in the way that it will put many social movements 鈥渋nto conversation鈥� with one another. This means that rather than addressing instances of activism in cultural isolation, they will be analyzed through an intersectional and comparative lens.

Activism requires community spaces and resources for organization. On campus at CU 麻豆影院, groups like the United Mexican American Students organization and the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Atzl谩n help provide those resource for students. 鈥淭hese spaces need to be mandatory,鈥� says Ordaz, who got her PhD at the University of California, Davis.

鈥淎t the heart of ethnic studies is activism,鈥� she says, adding that without the student activism of the 1960s, ethnic studies would not exist.

Ordaz adds that ethnic studies courses are useful for students, 鈥渞egardless of what job they end up getting, because they make you think critically about your position in the world, and how we operate with one another.鈥澨�