In post-Sept. 11 America, prisons are increasingly holding people, some
of them indefinitely, for reasons of security, asylum and migration.
But neither George Bush nor John Kerry is talking about immigration
issues, which "should be at the very forefront of the debates," says
Robert Barsky, an immigration issues expert and Vanderbilt University
professor. "Americans put their fear of terrorism above any number of
more rational concerns about their workplace, environment, health care,
education, travel requirements and so forth. At the same time, their
prisons are being filled with people, many of whom work in the U.S.,
who have been incarcerated for vague reasons related to migration,
asylum or security. It’s a calamity that millions of people in this
country are forced to live, work and travel ñ and at times find
themselves behind bars ñ without proper counsel, documentation or
social assistance and, in many cases, without solid legal
justification. It’s a sign of worrisome times that these important
issues are being purposefully ignored."
Robert Barsky is the author of two books and has published numerous
articles on refugee and migration issues. He is the founding editor of
AmeriQuests (http://www.ameriquests.org), a Vanderbilt University
journal that focuses on dislocation and relocation in America. Barsky
is professor of French and comparative literature in the Department of
French and Italian at Vanderbilt University and is associated with
Vanderbilt’s Center for the Americas.
To interview Barsky, call
615-322-2706 or email him: robert.barsky@vanderbilt.edu.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS, jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu