Carceral Remains, Abolition Remains: Immigration Detention in Madrid

ABSTRACT This paper concerns CIE Aluche, an immigration detention center in Madrid's southwestern inner suburbs. This site is the location of overlapping political struggles—over urban planning, historical memory, migrant justice, and detention abolition. In this paper, I unpack what I call the carceral and abolition remains of this site. I trace how these remains have articulated with contemporary processes to shape the current conjuncture and possibilities for CIE Aluche. This paper demonstrates the role of landscapes in bringing past social formations into articulation with contemporary conjunctures and the formation of conjunctural openings. I ultimately diagnose that there is a strong possibility for CIE Aluche's closure, but that this would be a conjunctural closure rather than a step toward detention or border abolition. This paper highlights how detention abolition projects are historically and geographically grounded, practical endeavors while also aiming at an expansive, emancipatory horizon.