Solidarities Across Waters: Examining the Asian American Role in Abolitionism to Confront the Southeast Asian American Deportation Crisis

For his human rights capstone, Phong Nguyen took the course SOC 179A: “Crime and Punishment,” a sociological examination of the racialized construction of crime and the U.S. criminal legal system, with a focus on policing, incarceration, and structural inequality. For his final project, Phong developed a research paper exploring the role of Asian Americans in the abolitionist movement–driven by both personal and academic reckonings with the displacement and criminalization of Southeast Asian American migrants. His project outlines a critical body of literature that calls for deeper scholarly engagement with Southeast Asian American experiences of the criminal legal system, while asserting the urgency of abolition as a liberatory framework for all oppressed communities. By confronting the domestic war waged on migrants, Nguyen hopes to prompt urgent dialogue on the functions of prisons and punishment in contemporary society. Student project deposited by department for archival purposes. Original work unavailable for public download due to permission restriction preferences of the author.