This article introduces the concept of collective liminality, a shared condition of heightened threat and uncertainty experienced by immigrant detainees and their families, as they wait, caught between two possible outcomes: their loved one's (temporary or permanent) release into the US or deportation. Drawing on 2 years of ethnographic data collection between 2015 and 2017 that included accompanying families to visitation at three Southern California detention facilities, and in‐depth interviews with former detainees and their relatives, I demonstrate the broader “collateral consequences” that immigration detention inflicts on detainees' loved ones. I find that not only does the detained individual experience liminality, but the detention of a loved one places the family in a state of shared liminality, which is experienced at two levels: material and emotional. These hardships materialize even before the detainees' deportation and can persist even after their release back into the US. This research extends scholarship on the impacts of detention on detainees, and on the consequences of deportation for families. The concept of collective liminality highlights how immigration detention functions as a critical tool of immigrant surveillance, punishment, and exclusion.

中文翻译：

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集体犯罪：无限期拘留对移民家庭的溢出效应

本文介绍了集体诉讼的概念，这是移民被拘留者及其家人在等待时遇到的共同威胁和不确定性的共同状况，介于两种可能的结果之间：他们所爱的人（临时或永久性）被释放到美国或驱逐出境。根据2015年至2017年的2年人种学数据收集，包括陪同家人到南加州的三个拘留所进行探视，并与前被拘留者及其亲属进行深入访谈，我证明了移民拘留对儿童造成的更广泛的“附带后果”被拘留者的亲人。我发现，被拘留者不仅会受到刑法限制，而且亲人的拘留也使家庭处于共同刑法状态，这在物质和情感两个层面上都可以经历。。这些困难甚至在被拘留者被驱逐出境之前就已经实现，甚至在被释放回美国之后仍会持续。这项研究扩大了关于拘留对被拘留者的影响以及驱逐出境对家庭造成的影响的奖学金。集体犯罪的概念突出了移民拘留如何作为移民监视，惩罚和排斥的重要工具。