Shining a light in the dark: The urgency of addressing immigration detention in normative political theory

Normative theory has engaged in a robust debate on the ethics of immigration admissions in liberal democracies. Yet, its scholars are mostly silent on the conditions and cascading harms caused by immigration detention, or the state's incarceration of non-citizens for immigration-related reasons. To remedy this oversight, we here present a case study of the relatively minimalist Canadian detention system and examine its real-world mechanics through a normative lens. We find that detention is both an integral part of the contemporary immigration enforcement system and morally wrong. By closely examining this case study, and layering our findings onto the normative debate, we hope to clarify morality, justice, and political problems that normative scholars have overlooked in debates on borders, state violence, and the human right to migrate. We argue that detention is a key moral problem left unanswered by normative political theorists examining the ethics of immigration admissions.