Throughline Who profits from migrant detention?
42 snips
Feb 19, 2026 
Brianna Nofil, assistant professor of history and author of The Migrant’s Jail, unpacks a century of migrant detention. She traces jail contracts and sheriffs’ fee systems, the shift between county jails and federal camps, the rise of private prisons, and how detention became tied to local economies and mass incarceration. Multiple historical flashpoints and political incentives shape the story.
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Early Jail Profits From Chinese Exclusion
- Pulteney Bigelow found Malone County Jail packed with Chinese migrants detained administratively after the Chinese Exclusion Act.
- The sheriff profited from detentions, treating migrants as a steady income source rather than criminal suspects.
Detention By Default: Jails As Footprint
- The immigration detention system became a nationwide footprint by using existing county jails across rural America.
- That decentralization let federal authorities hide detainees and avoid concentrated public scrutiny.
Ellen Knopf's Long Detention At Ellis Island
- Ellen Knopf was detained on Ellis Island for two years during the early Cold War without being told why she was a security risk.
- Her case reached the Supreme Court and later she was admitted for permanent residence after hearings failed to substantiate spying claims.
