'American Gulag' is an expose of the detention system run by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service by investigative journalist Mark Dow. Former prisoners, prison staff and federal officials describe the reality of the public and private institutions that are used to detain illegal immigrants.

To provide a framework for understanding stories like these, Dow gives a brief history of immigration laws and practices in the United States - including the repercussions of September 11 and present-day policies. His book reveals that current immigration detentions are best understood not as a well-intentioned response to terrorism but rather as part of the larger context of INS secrecy and excessive authority. American Gulag exposes the full story of a cruel prison system that is operating today with an astonishing lack of accountability.

Prologue: "Let This Be Home"
1. Invisibility, Intimidation, and the INS
2. September 11: Secrecy, Disruption, and Continuity 3. Another World, Another Nation: Miami's Krome Detention Center 4. "Enforcement Means You're Brutal"
5. The World's First Private Prison
6. "Keeping Quiet Means Deny": A Hunger Strike in Queens 7. The Art of Jailing
8. "Criminal Aliens" and Criminal Agents
9. Siege, Shackles, Climate, Design
10. "Speak to Every Media": Resistance, Repression, and the Making of a Prisoner 11. Good and Evil in New England 12. Out West: Philosophy and Despair 13. Dead Time 14. Mariel Cubans: Abandoned, Again and Again Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography
Index