Abolitionist Intimacies: Queer and Trans Migrants Against the Deportation State

In Abolitionist Intimacies, Eithne Luibhéid examines writings by and about queer- and trans-identified migrants and allies who contest pervasive US immigration practices and work toward a future without detention, deportation, and border controls. Luibhéid shows how these migrants and activists confront such controls by mobilizing intimacies--forging close connections in order to survive in the present. From forms of kinship beyond the heterosexual nuclear family to networks of solidarity, intimacies allow queer and trans migrants and allies to challenge the infrastructures that support the deportation state: proposed pathways to citizenship for undocumented migrants; marriage as a means for legalization; traffic interactions as a pipeline to deportation; and queer and trans migrant detention. In the process, activists and theorists have advanced new visions and configurations of possible intimacies that not only challenge deportation but also rework what immigration control and citizenship could mean. By focusing on these abolitionist efforts as well as the publicly available records on queer and trans deportees, Luibhéid highlights the new understandings that emerge when the experiences of queer and trans people are centered.

Author: Eithne Luibhéid
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 05/23/2025
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.57d
ISBN13: 9781478031239
ISBN10: 1478031239
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | LGBTQ+ Studies | Transgender Studies
- Social Science | Emigration & Immigration
- Social Science | Cultural & Ethnic Studies | Caribbean & Latin American Studi

About the Author
Eithne Luibhéid is Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Arizona and author of Pregnant on Arrival: Making the Illegal Immigrant and Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border.