Book discussion on “How to Close a Camp” by journalist John Washington
December 3 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm MST
by Carolyn Classen, blogger
| Book & Author Event: John Washington on How to Close a Camp |
| Join us for a conversation with Tucson journalist John Washington about immigrant detention, community resistance, and what it takes to close a camp. Ian Philabaum of Innovation Law Lab will facilitate this conversation. When: Thursday, Dec. 3rd, 6 – 7:30 PMWhere: Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center, 564 S. Stone Ave. Jewish history has taught us to pay attention when governments begin to define certain people as outsiders: when neighbors become targets, when borders become instruments of exclusion, and when detention and state violence are justified by who people are rather than what they have done.  |
| Today, immigrant detention centers are proliferating across the country, while masked federal agents detain and deport our neighbors. In How to Close a Camp, award-winning journalist and translator John Washington offers an unflinching look at the history of state violence against migrants and a practical guide to resisting immigrant detention. Jewish tradition, rooted in both moral principle and in collective memory, commands us to love the stranger. But what does that history ask of us now? What are our obligations to the stranger, to our neighbors, and to one another? And how can we all move from moral witness to meaningful action? |
| About the speakers John Washington has written for The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Nation, and The Intercept. He is also the author of The Case for Open Borders and The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the US-Mexico Border and Beyond. He lives in Tucson. Ian Philabaum, Director of Legal Organizing at Innovation Law Lab, will facilitate the conversation. Ian began this work in 2015, providing legal services to mothers and children detained in the South Texas family detention center in Dilley, and has since helped build legal projects in ten states. He was born and raised in Tucson.   |
| Read it first. Copies of How to Close a Camp are available now at the museum. Pick one up, read it before December 3, and come ready to join the conversation. The event is free, but registration is required. |
| Register here |