Over and Against: Violence, Honor, and Satisfaction in Immigration Discourse

Deportation today can be deadly. Since 2016 there have been dozens of cases where migrants have been killed shortly after being deported from the United States, and for some citizens this is an appropriate punishment and payment for the sin and “dishonor” of violating borders. However, I argue we have the mandate to change what we cannot accept by standing in for the migrant; we are called to interrupt immigration violence existentially as the new focus of punishment; politically as voices for those unable to speak; and viscerally by interjecting via loving protest and spiritual care. In this paper, I use Anselm’s theory of satisfaction to offer a necessary alternative to the theory of penal substitution that predominates our immigration discourse today, and I call on K. Anthony Appiah’s discussion of honor to explain how this need of society is very present yet often unacknowledged in immigration discourse.