Objective/context:

To analyze the experiences and police/state practices of detaining migrants from the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia in the Amazon-Andean “transit zone,” based on the transformations occurring in the “illegality industry” within South America, amid the intensification and diversification of south-north migrations in the Americas between 2021 and 2022.

Methodology:

The research is based on ethnographic work conducted in 2022 at the tri-border area of Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru. It includes interviews and conversations with state, institutional, and social actors; in-person (and later digital) interactions with migrants from Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela; and observations on the mobility and border crossings of migrants from the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia.

Conclusions:

The punitive experiences of migrants from the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia reveal that the practice of detention in “south-north transit” contexts is configured as a hegemonic mode of migration governance and a particular form of spatial containment. This invites a deeper exploration of the migratory, economic, policing, and racial regimes of mobility and immobility in the Americas.

Originality:

This article examines a dimension that is little explored in critical migration and border studies: the experiences and practices of “segmented detention” in migratory transit situations, stemming from the racialized exploitation of fear and the extraction of value from the mobility of migrants categorized as “extra-regional” in South America.