January 11th, 2025 will mark 23 years since the Guantanamo Bay prison was repurposed to house Muslim men and boys captured in the “War on Terror”. The prison serves as an emblematic example of institutionalized Islamophobia. But Guantanamo today is but the most recent iteration of the U.S. government’s ongoing vilification and incarceration of marginalized communities.
Recent reports that the US government has been violating the rights of refugees and asylum seekers detained at the base’s Migrant Operations Center have revived the brutal history of Guantanamo, harkening back to its initial use in the 90s to house Cuban and Haitian refugees and asylum seekers. Though the US government has ensured that the prison is kept out of sight and out of mind, dismantling and abolishing the prison is ever more urgent given the capacity and interest of the powerful to recycle the prison as a detention site for the most criminalized and demonized groups.
This panel will explore Guantanamo’s legacy, and how the entrenched image — that the prison houses the “worst of the worst” – justifies its existence and evolution.
The panel will also address the logics and operations of Guantanamo as part of the US carceral state beyond domestic borders. Finally, the panelists will speak to how we can unify our collective resistance and advocacy efforts to: 1) ensure the closure of the prison and the Migrant Operations Center, and 2) protect all of our communities from the brutality that Guantanamo represents.
This event is co-sponsored by Muslim Counterpublics Lab, Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International, and the National Immigrant Justice Center.
ASL Translation and live transcription will be provided for this event.