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Silky Shah

Silky Shah has been working as an organizer on issues related to racial and migrant justice for over two decades. Originally from Texas, she began fighting the expansion of immigrant jails on the US-Mexico border in the aftermath of 9/11. In 2009, she joined the staff of Detention Watch Network, a national coalition building power to abolish immigrant detention in the United States, and now serves as its executive director. Her writing on immigration policy and organizing has been published in TruthoutTeen Vogue, Inquest, and The Forge and in the edited volumes, The Jail is Everywhere (Verso, 2024), Resisting Borders and Technologies of Violence (Haymarket Books, 2024), and Transformative Planning (Black Rose Books, 2020). She has also appeared in numerous national and local media outlets including The Washington Post, NPR, and MSNBC.

Upcoming Events

  • Haymarket Presents: Silky Shah on Unbuild Walls

    May 18, 2025
    Haymarket House and Online
    Chicago, IL

    Join us for the next event in the Haymarket Presents speakers series, as Silky Shah is joined by historian Charlotte E. Rosen for a conversation on Shah’s book, Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition.

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