active struggles of distinct groups of people, in some cases shaped also by the presence of infrastructure, laws, and other “objects.” This unfolding current history the value of attending to the productive role of contention, a point well established in some traditions in the social sciences. Here, we have aimed to encompass a wide and often disparate set of contending elements, which allows for complex formations and sometimes unexpected outcomes (e.g., the recourse of government agencies to their strong opponents to provide services to released migrants). Although we approach contention as an open-ended process, it must be emphasized that it is highly unequal; the executive and major agencies of the U.S. state, the main patterns of border and immigration law, and the current relatively anti-immigrant and racist balance of politics certainly makes the aims of Central Americans and their supporters difficult to achieve. We also have taken note of the moral ideas and actions on a variety of sides in this contentious process. Moral justice is not unitary and obvious to all, as the struggle shows, but from our perspective, we share humanity across borders, including migration and refuge as protection from harm.
active struggles of distinct groups of people, in some cases shaped also by the presence of infrastructure, laws, and other “objects.” This unfolding current history the value of attending to the productive role of contention, a point well established in some traditions in the social sciences. Here, we have aimed to encompass a wide and often disparate set of contending elements, which allows for complex formations and sometimes unexpected outcomes (e.g., the recourse of government agencies to their strong opponents to provide services to released migrants). Although we approach contention as an open-ended process, it must be emphasized that it is highly unequal; the executive and major agencies of the U.S. state, the main patterns of border and immigration law, and the current relatively anti-immigrant and racist balance of politics certainly makes the aims of Central Americans and their supporters difficult to achieve. We also have taken note of the moral ideas and actions on a variety of sides in this contentious process. Moral justice is not unitary and obvious to all, as the struggle shows, but from our perspective, we share humanity across borders, including migration and refuge as protection from harm.
south-texas-7-18-16.docx