Colonial Relics: Unearthing the Lingering of Tyranny of Colonial Discourse in U.S. – Caribbean Immigration Law and Policy
Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development, Vol. 26, 2011
26 Pages Posted: 31 May 2014
Date Written: 2011
Abstract
Immigration law is constantly evolving. It is one of the most dynamic and multi-faceted areas of law. Specifically, in the space of asylum and refugee law, practitioners, immigration judges and our appellate courts face a daunting task of reconciling the law with the plethora of human misery that flock to our shores. The laws are plagued with ambiguity and complexity, and the task of interpretation is a daunting one. As a result, legal interpretation by our immigration courts can leave immigrants to languish in “a field of pain and death.”
This article will examine the politics of location inherent in U.S. immigration policy. I will explore the disparate treatment of Caribbean nationals in our immigration courts and the systemic discrimination that constrains the discretion of our immigration judges. My analysis will draw upon historical narratives that are steeped in the European-derived epistemology that constructed the Caribbean identity. The Caribbean basin has been more thoroughly colonized than any other area in the world. Over centuries of European colonialism, the Caribbean peoples were subject to the dehumanizing and emasculating effects of having transplanted values and laws imposed upon them, often through the most horrific means. In this historical context, this paper will demonstrate that the language employed during that era to maintain the twin demons of slavery and colonialism in the region, still informs the social construction of identity that permeates the rhetoric of “otherness” in United States immigration jurisprudence.
Keywords: immigration, law, policy, Caribbean
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