Description
Protect, Serve, and Deport exposes the on-the-ground workings of local immigration enforcement in Nashville, Tennessee. Between 2007 and 2012, Nashville’s local jail participated in an immigration enforcement program known as 287(g), which turned jail staff into immigration officers who identified over ten thousand removable immigrants for deportation. The majority of the ones identified for removal weren’t serious criminals, but Latino residents arrested by local police for minor violations. Protect, Serve, and Deport explains how local politics, state laws, institutional policies, and police practices work in combination to deliver immigrants into an expanding federal deportation system, conveying powerful messages about race, citizenship, and belonging.