Captivity, Life and Death at the Nation’s Edge: Two Christian Visions of the U.S. Immigrant Detention Regime

Abstract

Contemporary U.S. border enforcement involves more than the exclusion of immigrants. It also involves the extraction of profits from those held captive at the border line. Recast as “bodies” to fill “bed space” in dealings between ICE and private prisons, detained people experience multiple levels of suspension: between nations, between legal statuses, and between states of life and death. The testimonies of two Christian leaders who have ministered to those in detention reveal contrasting visions of life, death, and salvation that alternately occlude and shed light on the material realities of immigrant detention. For Timothy O’Dell, former national Director of Chaplaincy for CoreCivic, incarceration is a transformative experience that can prompt individuals to seek salvation in the hereafter. For Diana Ramos, an asylum-seeker who ministered to her peers while held at CoreCivic’s Eloy Detention Center, the harrowing realities of detention catalyzed moments of this-worldly healing, fueled by imagery of liberation.