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The making of undocumented people into slaves.

The making of undocumented people into slaves.

No Due Process, Indefinite Detainment and the 13th Amendment

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Jonathan Walton
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The Crux
Jun 24, 2025
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The Crux
The Crux
The making of undocumented people into slaves.
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Over the last 20 years, for many American Christians in the United States human trafficking has risen up as a justice issue to rally behind. But for some reason the end to that exploitation rarely includes prison labor. And it should.

13th is a 2016 documentary directed by Ava DuVernay. It investigates the deep-rooted connections between race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States. The film’s title refers to the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude—except as punishment for a crime. DuVernay’s central thesis is that this exception clause has been systematically exploited to perpetuate a cycle of racial oppression, primarily targeting Black Americans. And it is my fear and the accelerating reality that undocumented people and any other detained non-citizen that fits the profile will be moved from making poverty wages in a field for an exploitative farmer to picking crops for a private prison for nothing but a $5 phone card to call their family.

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