Dissertation
Water in the Desert or "The Sanctuary Movement Never Ended": An Examination of Humane Borders, Tucson Samaritans, and No More Deaths Counter-Conducts
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2016
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111215
Abstract
WATER IN THE DESERT OR “THE SANCTUARY MOVEMENT NEVER ENDED”:
AN EXAMINATION OF HUMANE BORDERS, TUCSON SAMARITANS,
AND NO MORE DEATHS COUNTER-CONDUCTS
Abstract
By Rebecca Ann Fowler, Ph.D.
Washington State University
December 2016
Chair: C. Richard King
In Tucson, Arizona, three desert aid organizations Humane Borders (2000), Samaritans (2002), and No More Deaths (2004) emerged to address the mounting crisis of the growing numbers of migrant deaths caused by U.S. immigration policies that intentionally funnel persons without papers into deadly desert environments. Founded by members of the 80’s Tucson Sanctuary Movement, the organizations exist to save lives by assisting desert migrants with food, water, and medical aid. However, each group also seeks to challenge the immigration powers and policies that put migrants in peril in the first place. I argue that these groups carry out what Michel Foucault has termed counter-conducts, or strategic acts of proactive resistance that struggle against being “governed thusly, like that, by these people, at this price.” This work will show that the work of the first organizations made it possible for successive groups to become more actively and radically counter-conductive than the one/s before. I examine different modes of counter-conduct that include counter-discourse, counter-mapping, counter-surveillance, and witnessing and responding. Importantly, it will be shown that, for each group, and especially for Samaritans and No More Deaths, the art of counter-conducting is grounded in the principles of civil initiative as formulated by 80’s Tucson Sanctuary Movement co-founder Jim Corbett. Civil initiative is counter-conductive by definition in that it corresponds to the legal right and ethical responsibility of civil society to protect the victims of human rights violations when the government is the violator. Desert humanitarian organizations take actions grounded in civil initiative to counter-conduct the U.S. biopolitical project that seeks to contain “illegal aliens” in treacherous geographies. Ultimately, this study bears out Tucson Southside Presbyterian Reverend Alison Harrington in her declaration that “The Sanctuary Movement never ended.” Desert aid humanitarian efforts that were initiated in 2000 and that are ongoing today correspond to “acts of sanctuary” and are a carryover of ethical responses initiated in the eighties by religious leaders and other members of the Tucson community.
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Details
- Title
- Water in the Desert or "The Sanctuary Movement Never Ended": An Examination of Humane Borders, Tucson Samaritans, and No More Deaths Counter-Conducts
- Creators
- Rebecca Ann Fowler
- Contributors
- C. Richard King (Advisor)Carmen R Lugo-Lugo (Committee Member)Steven W Bender (Committee Member)Rory J Ong (Committee Member)Marian Sciachitano (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- School of Languages, Cultures, and Race
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 210
- Identifiers
- 99900581633201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation