The Shadow of El Centro – A History of Migrant Incarceration and Solidarity

The Shadow of El CentroA History of Migrant Incarceration and Solidarity\nAuthor(s): Jessica Ordaz\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: The University of North Carolina Press, United States\nImprint: The University of North Carolina Press\nISBN-13: 9781469662473, 978-1469662473\nSynopsis\nBounded by desert and mountains, El Centro, California, is isolated and difficult to reach. However, its location close to the border between San Diego and Yuma, Arizona, has made it an important place for Mexican migrants attracted to the valley's agricultural economy. In 1945, it also became home to the El Centro Immigration Detention Camp. The Shadow of El Centro tells the story of how that camp evolved into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service Processing Center of the 2000s and became a national model for detaining migrants-a place where the policing of migration, the racialization of labor, and detainee resistance coalesced.\n\nUsing government correspondence, photographs, oral histories, .