May 12–14, 2026
University of Toronto Campuses
Haven: The Asylum Lab is excited to host Building Bridges: Research and Activism Along the Canada–U.S. Border, a three-day conference that brings together scholars, practitioners, and community voices to engage with the shifting realities of the border today.
In 2025, the Canada–United States border is under mounting pressure. As the United States narrows access to asylum and expands enforcement through detention, deportation, and surveillance, the effects are already being felt north of the border. Canada has responded with new legislation and increased securitization, reshaping how migration is governed even as trade tensions rise. At the same time, deep cross-border cooperation persists, from information sharing to asylum restrictions under the Safe Third Country Agreement. Against this shifting and contested landscape, this conference brings together researchers, legal scholars, activists, and community organizers to engage with the urgent implications for people on the move.
We are especially pleased to invite members of the public to attend two public plenaries:
May 12, 2026, 4:00–6:00 PM
“Jurisdiction on the Move: Indigenous Border Rights and Transboundary Nationhood”
Dr. Sheryl Lightfoot
Indigenous House, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1053 Military Trail
Indigenous Peoples, whose homelands long predate the Canada–United States border, continue to assert inherent rights to free movement, mobility, and cross-border community life. Yet, contemporary border governance too often constrains these rights, despite domestic and international legal developments affirming them. This presentation examines emerging assertions of Indigenous border jurisdiction through several key cases and policy initiatives: Haudenosaunee passport diplomacy and challenges to recognition; the Desautel decision confirming Sinixt cross-border harvesting rights; and Lummi Nation claims that reflect enduring nationhood across Washington State and British Columbia. It also considers Canadian government efforts, including initiatives under former Immigration Minister Marc Miller, aimed at easing border crossing for Indigenous Peoples as a matter of rights rather than discretionary facilitation. Taken together, these examples reveal how Indigenous Nations are reshaping the legal and political landscape of the Canada–U.S. border—advancing forms of jurisdiction that move with peoples, not with the line on the map.
May 13, 2026, 4:30–6:00 PM
“Reengineering Profit: Detention, Corporate Power, and the Political Economy of Immigration Enforcement”
Dr. Deirdre Conlon & Dr. Nancy Hiemstra
Paul Cadario Conference Centre, University College, University of Toronto (St. George Campus), 15 King’s College Circle
Drawing on more than a decade of research into the political economy of U.S. immigration detention, this presentation examines how profit is extracted through essential services, commissary systems, migrant labor, and even oversight mechanisms meant to regulate detention. We show how contracts for food, medical care, and facility operations generate competition, litigation, and neglect while transforming detained migrants’ basic needs into revenue streams. These dynamics create webs of economic dependency linking corporations, local governments, and federal agencies, blurring public–private boundaries and entrenching detention as a lucrative economic system. We also analyze recent shifts under the second Trump administration that concentrate wealth and power in major prison corporations while rewarding political allies, including new procurement practices, the “Detention Reengineering Initiative,” warehouse facilities, and deteriorating detention conditions. At the same time, shrinking public investment in social programs and infrastructure pushes communities to pursue economic opportunities within carceral systems. Situating these developments alongside shifting detention regimes beyond the United States, we conclude by considering activist strategies to challenge detention’s political economies within and across borders.
To attend either or both public plenaries, please register using the button on this page or with the QR code found on the poster below.
