Abstract:
In this paper I examine how the Canada-US border was practiced by local officials and advocates in the 1980s when thousands of people from Central American sought refuge in Canada. US intervention in El Salvador and Guatemala in particular meant the government was hesitant to accept refugees fleeing regimes it was supporting. Although acceptance rates were much higher for refugee claims in Canada, the government introduced drastic changes to refugee policy in 1987 including the lifting of moratoria on deportations, introduction of visa requirements, and implementation of direct-backs to the US. The Sanctuary Movement, a network of church and community groups, mobilized in response to the abysmal acceptance rates in the US and initially divergent Canadian policies. While much has been written about practices of the Sanctuary Movement across the Mexico-US border and within particular US cities (Coutin, 1993; Crittenden, 1988; Cunningham, 1995), very little is recorded about the US-Canada borderlands involved (but see García, 2006; Nolin, 2006). Through the example of the Detroit/Windsor Refugee Coalition, which formed in 1983 to assist refugees in Detroit as they waited to cross into Windsor, I ask what has been obscured in the lack of scholarly attention to this border work. I argue that silence about this local history of the Canada-US border resonates in contemporary border control practices. As the distinctions between US and Canadian policies are worked out in this border city, we can gain insight into the questions of legitimacy and legality that continue to be mobilized around the border.
