ABOLISHING THE POLICE
WHY BORDERS AND PRISONS, BORDER GUARDS AND POLICE? Tom Kemp & Phe Amis
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n recent years, the injustices of border enforcement have become central sites of struggle for radical and left-liberal politics. The demand to shut down the UK’s detention centres and to end ‘hostile environment’ policies is gaining support from a growing range of political actors. However, the predominant forms of migrant rights campaigning in the UK are still premised on the assumption that immigration detention and border enforcement are separable from prisons and police. For some, this is an analytical distinction. It might be held, for example, that borders target people because of who they are rather than what they have done. For others, this is a strategic distinction. It might be more imaginable to destabilise recent manifestations of borders than to eradicate other forms of policing and imprisonment. We think that this distinction is analytically and strategically flawed. We argue that migrant rights campaigns have to incorporate radical critiques of policing and prisons.
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