Carceral State Project

Exhibition on display at Lane Hall now! ICE in the Heartland showcases a multifaceted project that gathers and disseminates the stories of communities impacted by immigration worksite raids with the aim of bringing underrepresented narratives to news media, classroom, and public discourse. This project comprises qualitative public health research conducted in impacted communities and visual arts generated from the research outcomes. Research teams of graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Michigan, led by CSP Faculty Professor William Lopez, and the University of Iowa, led by Professor Nicole Novak, collaborated with a range of community members and organizers at sites of six large-scale immigration worksite raids that occurred in 2018 in Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas. The researchers visited these sites, spoke to advocates, detainees, their families, and other community members. In conversation with the seventy-seven interviews, artists Dalia Harris and Carolina Jones Ortiz generated ten images that comprise ICE in the Heartland. On display with the artworks are community member testimonies, analysis on the public health detriments to immigration worksite raids and deportation, insights to the artists’ methods, and the curricular materials used in public outreach programs.

As of 2024, the ACLU reports that Michigan has the17th highest youth incarceration rate in the United States; for every 100,000 people, 217 youths are in confinement. Our new story, “Silenced Voices: Surviving and Resisting Youth Incarceration in Michigan” by Adler Fritz, spotlights the problematic conditions of youth confinement and pervasive cruelty within Michigan’s juvenile justice system, this story further aims to inspire important dialogue and action by examining the transformative powers of self expression and community collaboration in creative arts programs. Click the link in our bio to read the full story.