Torn Apart

Prof. Patricia J. Williams, The New York Review of Books, Dec. 5, 2024

"A witch places a curse on a family’s favorite daughter. An evil dragon devours the firstborn babe of the king. It’s biblical: damning the son for the sins of the father. It’s what crime syndicates do: threatening the bodily integrity of a beloved as “incentive” for a debtor to cough up ransom. We view such bargaining as criminal when extracted by humans—and even when the threat is issued by the gods. What, then, to make of a constitutional democracy that builds such a payment scheme into its very system of justice? What to make of a political regime that explicitly designs an immigration policy for removing children from parents just to “disincentivize” future migrants from seeking asylum within its borders? That, of course, is the essence of the “zero tolerance” child separation program begun under President Donald Trump. While unaccompanied children had been detained by previous administrations, children arriving with their families had not been routinely taken from their parents unless those parents represented a threat to their health or welfare. And never before in our history had there been an actual policy of removal devised simply as theatrical cruelty that might serve to frighten other migrants from coming here. ..."

"Professor Williams, one of the most provocative intellectuals in American law and a pioneer of both the law and literature and critical race theory movements in American legal theory, holds a joint appointment between the School of Law and the Department of Philosophy and Religion in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities. She is also director of Law, Technology and Ethics Initiatives in the School of Law and the College of Social Sciences and Humanities."