Learning to Detain Asylum Seekers and the Growth of Mass Immigration Detention in the United States

Drawing upon an analysis of congressional records and media coverage from 1981 to 1996, this article examines the growth mass immigration detention. It traces important shift during period: while detention began as ad hoc executive initiative that was received with skepticism by legislature, Congress ultimately responsible for entrenching system over objections agency. As we reveal, a critical component evolution transformation in Congress’s perception asylum seekers. While lawmakers initially decried their detention, they later branded them dangerous. Lawmakers describing seekers criminals or agents infectious diseases order justify which then cleared way arriving migrants more broadly. Our suggests may have emphasized dangerousness resolve dissonance between theoretical commitments hesitance welcome newcomers. In addition distinctive form cognitive dissonance, discuss number other implications our research, including ways new penology framework figured into changing discourse about detaining