Stephanie Schwartz

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Dr @stephrschwartz.bsky.social has published a new research article titled, "Refugee Return without Refoulement: Rethinking State Strategies to Evade Asylum Norms" in International Migration Review.

🔗 Read the full article to find out more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Refugee Return without Refoulement: Rethinking State Strategies to Evade Asylum Norms - Stephanie Schwartz, 2025 How do states avoid hosting refugees? Whereas scholars have documented at length the strategies that rich democracies use to avoid hosting refugees, conventiona...

It’s finally out: doi.org/10.1177/0197...

WEEK 19 WEEK 19

"From what I can tell, ICE is a secret police when acting in a public space...The comparativist in me wants to think about other police forces in history which had such broad and ill-defined powers. But such comparisons are too frightening."

adamprzeworski.substack.com/p/week-19

How the US immigration crackdown undermines democracy | USAPP Trump's harsh immigration actions are part of the administration’s strategy for dismantling democracy by amassing coercive power.

With unrest continuing in #LosAngeles and #Trump calling in more troops from the National Guard, where did this heavy response to anti-deportation #protests emerge from, and what is its aim?

@stephrschwartz.bsky.social @lseir.bsky.social‬ and @abbeyst.bsky.social‬ for @lseusablog.bsky.social‬

How the US immigration crackdown undermines democracy | USAPP Trump's harsh immigration actions are part of the administration’s strategy for dismantling democracy by amassing coercive power.

re-upping this piece with @stephrschwartz.bsky.social @lseblogs.bsky.social on how the immigration crackdown is a convenient cover for Trump to dismantle democracy -- given the developments in LA
blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

DOGE sought to assign a team to an independent nonprofit group A representative of DOGE met with leaders of the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit organization that advocates for lower incarceration rates.

This was predictable and exactly what people warned the USIP takeover was a stepping stone to.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Video shows ICE agents shatter car window during Massachusetts arrest: attorney Federal immigration agents are accused of shattering a car window in Massachusetts while detaining a Guatemalan man on Monday in a caught-on-camera incident – despite his attorney saying they had t…

This is the second video of ICE agents shattering a window in the last week rather than have some patience. And in this case, they're allegedly detaining someone who already has asylum through his wife, with no reason given at all!

www.borderreport.com/news/video-s...

So, here, in short, is what the Justice Department is offering the federal judiciary as a constitutionally sound option for migrants who say they face illegal deportation to El Salvador. These migrants have no right to contest their classification as gang members. They have no right to challenge the president's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act or secure a classwide restraining order against it. Their access to the courts is limited to an individual habeas petition in their district of confinement, which cannot practically address their grievances. Moreover, the government has no obligation to give migrants time-even just a few hours-to file a habeas petition or access to a lawyer or interpreter who could help. The government may, instead, whisk them away to El Salvador with no advance notice. And as soon as they are delivered to CECOT, they can no longer file a habeas petition, because they are out of U.S. custody.

The Justice Department’s latest filings make it abundantly clear that it is creating a black site for migrants in El Salvador that’s worse than Gitmo. slate.com/news-and-pol...

I've spent time in the midst of three civil wars and multiple authoritarian regimes, and a weird normalcy is very typical. People still have to work their jobs and feed their families. Markets are still held, and religious services go on. The threats just behind the surface can be easy to forget.

Abject cowardice from some of the most powerful people in the country.

Werken bij de UvA Werken bij de UvA betekent een creatieve, internationale omgeving met uitstekende arbeidsvoorwaarden, ruimte voor ontwikkeling en een goede werk-privébalans

GRIID is hiring! 2-year post-doc at the University of Amsterdam @rpa-cs-uva.bsky.social
on government responses to displacement project w/ me,
@abbeyst.bsky.social & Adam Lichtenheld.
- Closing date 30 April, starts fall 2025.
- More info & to apply:
werkenbij.uva.nl

Vacancy — Postdoctoral Position with the Conflict & Society Team Are you a recent social sciences PhD who has conducted cutting-edge research on forced displacement and migration? Do you have experience conducting mixed-methods research? The “Conflict & Society” Re...

📣 excited to announce a 2-year post-doc at the University of Amsterdam @rpa-cs-uva.bsky.social on government responses to displacement project w/ me, @stephrschwartz.bsky.social & Adam Lichtenheld.
- Closing date 30 April, starts fall 2025.
- More info & to apply:
werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

100% this. This is a feature not a bug, this is what the policies are designed to do. @abbeyst.bsky.social and I write about that more here: blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

Poland suspends migrants' right to apply for asylum The law will allow Polish authorities to temporarily spend asylum rights at the border with Belarus.

Watching the cascade of asylum norm death in real time... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The men disappeared to El Salvador because of their tattoos The Trump administration sent Venezuelans to El Salvador’s most infamous prison. Their families are looking for answers.

The full story is here, and it includes multiple other cases of people, including other people who entered at ports of entry (not illegally) who were clearly detained and shipped to El Salvador solely on the basis of their tattoo and nothing more. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

What immigration as an issue area can do, though, that taking over the treasury or decreeing biological sex cannot, is to mobilize the military and unleash militias to enforce their vision.

To enact their radical view immigrants are only one of their targets. One way for a state to eliminate unwanted groups is expulsion. Another related tactic is erasure. Which is exactly what the administration’s attacks on DEI programs and Trans people aim to do

So, what is it the administration is going to do once the military is policing US soil and the militias have been mobilized? We have plenty of indications that their goal is to dismantle democracy and rebuild society according to their white Chiristian nationalist worldview.

New York vigilantes take down ‘migrant’ on live TV – but he was from the US Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa claimed to Fox News’ Sean Hannity that man had been shoplifting, but NYPD has no evidence

Broadcasting raids on social media paints ICE as heroes saving the country against those they’ve demonized. The showmanship is intentional. It signals to militia already operating at the southern border & others like the Proud Boys to join in, e.g.: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...

So, while the administration can claim they’re just targeting criminals, the way they are carrying out the raids is designed to rally their supporters into widening the net.

The crackdown also signals pro-government militias to join in. Mobilizing pro-government militias is a common strategy of autocracies: militias do the government’s dirty work, wielding violence against a domestic population while giving the government cover to deny that they are responsible.

Once the military is deployed somewhere in the US, it is much easier to deploy them elsewhere, and possibly for other ends.

How does this work? Read those exec orders closely. Why has Stephen Miller called regular migration at the border an invasion? It creates the possibility of invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act, which would allow the federal government to deploy the military on US soil to ‘restore law and order’.

In addition, the way the way the administration is attacking immigrants creates a unique, additional opportunity to consolidate coerce control (the military, policy, militia, etc.) under the executive to enforce their radical agenda

The administration is already inflicting terrible suffering on immigrants, their families and communities

The immigration crackdown is central to Trump's strategy to undermine democracy. What it can do that purging opponents or controlling the power of the purse cannot is enable military deployment on US soil & rally militia to enact their agenda unchecked. w/ @abbeyst.bsky.social for #USAPP

@stephrschwartz.bsky.social and I wrote a post for @lseblogs.bsky.social on how the immigration crackdown can help the administration mobilize US troops on US soil, and rally militia -- which would enable even more harm to groups this administration targets, like Trans Americans.

In case it’s not clear, ICE is getting the names of pro-Palestine students to target from infamous pro-Israel watchdog groups Campus Watch, Canary Mission, etc

Those groups — not part of govt in any way — have enormous power right now with a direct pipeline to the deportation machine.

Good morning. Immigrants are #HereToStay.