Smugglers or samaritans in Tucson, Arizona

Producing and Contesting Legal Truth

Bibliographic Data

ID2467142
AuthorsB Coutin (0000-0003-1065-2769, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, corresponding author), Susan Bibler Coutin
Year1995
Volume22
Issue3
Pages549-571
Publication date1995-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1525/ae.1995.22.3.02a00050
OpenAlexW2021824751
LanguageEN
Citations received29
References cited44

In 1985-86, 11 religious activists whose congregations had declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees were tried in Tucson, Arizona, on alien-smuggling charges. Although 8 of the 11 were convicted and although the verdicts were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, the social and legal significance of the trial, and of the sanctuary movement itself, has continued to be negotiated by sanctuary activists. Examining the events that led to this trial, the trial itself, and the trial's aftermath sheds light on how legal truth is produced and contested both within and outside of courtrooms. [power, resistance, truth, sanctuary, prosecution, law

Environmental ethics · Political science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies