In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

• The Symbolic Criminalization of Asylum: Navigating Encounters with US Customs and Border Protection Officials
• Alyssa Dormer (bio), Daniel E. Martínez (bio), and Annalise Gardella (bio)

Introduction

On a hot summer day in one of the US Southwestern Migrant Shelter (SMS) facilities we stand in the dormitory hallway with Ana¹ and her 10-year-old daughter, Gabriela, who fits easily in the toddler-sized stroller where she sits. Ana and Gabriela are seeking asylum in the United States. Ana pleads with us to help her contact her 18-year-old daughter, Esmeralda, who has been detained in a long-term immigrant detention facility after their separation by US authorities. Gabriela had remained quiet during our conversation, but as the topic turns to her older sister, she begins to audibly cry. It becomes clear in this moment—as in most others at the shelter—that the bureaucratic process of seeking asylum in the US is one created to instill fear and uncertainty in those who seek refuge in this country.

Forced to leave their home in Guatemala due to violent threats against their family, Ana and her daughters traveled for 20 days before arriving at the US-Mexico border. The journey was long, traumatic, and exhausting, leaving them in poor health and in need of medical care. All three experienced vomiting and diarrhea and symptoms of dehydration, heat exposure, and lack of adequate food and water, which were common experiences among shelter guests. After surrendering to US authorities [End Page 177] and asking for asylum, they were held in a hielera—an overcrowded holding facility with frigid temperatures—where they received no medical attention and inadequate food. Ana was told that she and her daughters would not be separated; however, moments before they were released, Esmeralda was taken from her mother and sister and sent to long-term detention in an unknown location. Sadly, Ana’s story is not uncommon, and the transient nature of the shelter makes it difficult to follow the trajectories of the people with whom we spoke. When we returned to the shelter days later, Ana and Gabriela were gone. We could only assume that Esmeralda remained in detention or had been deported.

Though asylum is a legal right in the US, the process of seeking asylum is fraught with inequity and violence. Mirroring the abhorrent conditions often unjustly endured by undocumented migrants and other immigrant detainees in US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody, the everyday mistreatment asylum seekers experience indicates a larger process of racialized criminalization and state-sponsored violence unjustified by the legal parameters of US asylum law (Martínez and Slack 2013; Martínez, Heyman, and Slack 2020). We contend this routine abuse experienced by asylum seekers must be viewed through a lens of criminalization that has characterized the lived realities of many immigrants in the US and shaped broader societal notions of the immigrant/criminal “Other.” Legalistic definitions of criminalization fail to account for symbolic dimensions of criminalizing processes, including discursive criminalization (the construction of people as criminals through the language used to speak about them), criminalizing treatment (the mistreatment, abuse, and neglect asylum seekers experience while in US custody), and the internalization of these forms of criminalization. As such, we introduce the concept of “symbolic criminalization” to expand our understanding of how these processes (1) negatively affect individual asylum seekers who have a legal right to seek asylum, and (2) contribute to a broader system that fails to treat asylum seekers in a humane manner.

Through the lenses of criminalization and legal violence, this article examines the US asylum process along the Southwest border and documents the lived experiences of asylum seekers seeking refuge in the US while in CBP custody. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews with asylum seekers in the SMS, we identify [End Page 178] concerning patterns of mistreatment by CBP officials that reveal racialized and systemic violence in the first stage of the asylum-seeking process. Our research offers insight into how those who pass through this initial stage conceptualize their own criminalization in relation to their personal and cultural histories, their often-tumultuous journeys to the US, and their short-term detention...

中文翻译：

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庇护的象征性刑事定罪：与美国海关和边境保护官员的遭遇

以下是内容的简短摘录，以代替摘要：

• 庇护的象征性刑事定罪：与美国海关和边境保护官员的遭遇
• 艾莉莎·多默尔（简介）、丹尼尔·E·马丁内斯（简介）和安娜丽丝·加德拉（简介）

简介_

^{炎热的夏日，在美国西南部移民收容所 (SMS) 的一处设施中，我们和 Ana 1}以及她 10 岁的女儿加布里埃拉 (Gabriela)站在宿舍走廊里，她坐的婴儿车大小正好适合她。安娜和加布里埃拉正在美国寻求庇护。安娜恳求我们帮助她联系她 18 岁的女儿埃斯梅拉达 (Esmeralda)，她在被美国当局分居后一直被拘留在长期移民拘留所中。在我们的谈话中，加布里埃拉一直保持安静，但当话题转向她的姐姐时，她开始大声哭泣。此时此刻，正如庇护所中的大多数其他人一样，很明显，在美国寻求庇护的官僚程序是为了给在这个国家寻求庇护的人灌输恐惧和不确定性而设立的。

由于家人受到暴力威胁，安娜和她的女儿们被迫离开危地马拉的家，她们旅行了 20 天才抵达美国和墨西哥边境。这段旅程漫长、痛苦、疲惫不堪，他们的健康状况不佳，需要医疗护理。三人都出现了呕吐、腹泻、脱水、受热以及缺乏足够食物和水等症状，这些都是庇护所客人的常见经历。在向美国当局自首[第177页完]并请求庇护后，他们被关押在监狱中——一个人满为患、气温寒冷的拘留设施——他们没有得到医疗护理，食物也不足。安娜被告知她和她的女儿们不会分开。然而，就在他们被释放前不久，埃斯梅拉达被从她的母亲和妹妹身边带走，并被送往一个未知地点的长期拘留所。可悲的是，安娜的故事并不少见，而庇护所的短暂性使得我们很难追踪与我们交谈的人们的轨迹。几天后，当我们回到避难所时，安娜和加布里埃拉已经走了。我们只能假设埃斯梅拉达仍被拘留或已被驱逐出境。

尽管庇护在美国是一项合法权利，但寻求庇护的过程充满了不平等和暴力。寻求庇护者的日常虐待经历反映了美国海关和边境保护局 (CBP) 拘留中的无证移民和其他移民被拘留者经常不公正地忍受的令人憎恶的条件，这表明美国法律范围内存在不合理的种族化犯罪定罪和国家支持的暴力的更大过程。庇护法（Martínez 和 Slack 2013；Martínez、Heyman 和 Slack 2020）。我们认为，必须从刑事定罪的角度来看待寻求庇护者所经历的这种例行虐待行为，这种定罪是美国许多移民的生活现实的特征，并塑造了移民/犯罪“其他人”的更广泛的社会概念。刑事定罪的法律定义未能解释刑事定罪过程的象征性维度，包括话语刑事定罪（通过谈论人们所使用的语言将人们构建为罪犯）、刑事待遇刑事定罪（寻求庇护者在寻求庇护期间所经历的虐待、虐待和忽视）。美国拘留），以及这些形式的刑事定罪的内部化。因此，我们引入“象征性刑事定罪”的概念，以扩大我们对这些过程如何（1）对拥有寻求庇护合法权利的个人寻求庇护者产生负面影响的理解，以及（2）促成更广泛的制度，该制度未能处理以人道的方式对待寻求庇护者。将待遇（寻求庇护者在美国拘留期间遭受的虐待、虐待和忽视）定为刑事犯罪，并将这些形式的刑事定罪内在化。因此，我们引入“象征性刑事定罪”的概念，以扩大我们对这些过程如何（1）对拥有寻求庇护合法权利的个人寻求庇护者产生负面影响的理解，以及（2）促成更广泛的制度，该制度未能处理以人道的方式对待寻求庇护者。将待遇（寻求庇护者在美国拘留期间遭受的虐待、虐待和忽视）定为刑事犯罪，并将这些形式的刑事定罪内在化。因此，我们引入“象征性刑事定罪”的概念，以扩大我们对这些过程如何（1）对拥有寻求庇护合法权利的个人寻求庇护者产生负面影响的理解，以及（2）促成更广泛的制度，该制度未能处理以人道的方式对待寻求庇护者。

本文通过刑事定罪和法律暴力的视角，审视了美国西南边境的庇护程序，并记录了寻求庇护者在美国海关边境保护局拘留期间在美国寻求庇护的生活经历。根据 SMS 中的参与观察和对寻求庇护者的深入访谈，我们确定了[结束第 178 页] CBP 官员的虐待模式，这些模式揭示了寻求庇护过程第一阶段的种族化和系统性暴力。我们的研究深入了解了那些经历了这一初始阶段的人如何根据他们的个人和文化历史、他们经常动荡的美国之旅以及他们的短期拘留来概念化他们自己的犯罪行为……