In Abolitionist Intimacies, Eithne Luibhéid examines writings by and about queer- and trans-identified migrants and allies who contest pervasive US immigration practices and work toward a future without detention, deportation, and border controls. Luibhéid shows how these migrants and activists confront such controls by mobilizing intimacies—forging close connections in order to survive in the present. From forms of kinship beyond the heterosexual nuclear family to networks of solidarity, intimacies allow queer and trans migrants and allies to challenge the infrastructures that support the deportation state: proposed pathways to citizenship for undocumented migrants; marriage as a means for legalization; traffic interactions as a pipeline to deportation; and queer and trans migrant detention. In the process, activists and theorists have advanced new visions and configurations of possible intimacies that not only challenge deportation but also rework what immigration control and citizenship could mean. By focusing on these abolitionist efforts as well as the publicly available records on queer and trans deportees, Luibhéid highlights the new understandings that emerge when the experiences of queer and trans people are centered.

Table of Contents:

A Note on Terminology vii
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction. Against the Deportation State 1
1. Pathways: Coproducing Citizenship and Deportation 33
2. Love, Marriage, and Deportation 55
3. Driving While Undocumented: Circulating Fear and Fearlessness 79
4. Cities as Chokepoints and Resistance 101
Conclusion. “At the Edge of the Possible” 123
Notes 135
Bibliography 191
Index 225