As wave after wave of executive action and legislation criminalizing migrants, trans and gender nonconforming people, along with anything to do with racial, reproductive, sexual, gender, migrant or disability justice, is unleashed on communities across the country, accompanied by ICE raids, federal censorship, and funding cuts, amidst devastating fires, floods, and freezes, and ongoing genocides in Palestine, Sudan, the Congo and beyond, interrupting criminalization is more important than ever.

Interrupting Criminalization emerged in 2018, amidst the first iteration of the current federal regime. We conceived of Interrupting Criminalization because we recognized that criminalization is central to Right wing, authoritarian and fascist agendas - it is the mechanism that builds public consensus for violent repression, exclusion, and ultimately, extermination, and that spreads fear and ensures compliance. It is a process that extends beyond criminal laws, policies, and procedures into every institution and interaction, enforced not only by police and prosecutors, but also by administrators, employers, health care providers, neighbors, and vigilantes. IC is also built on the premise that examining the operation of criminalization at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, disability, and borders reveals the breadth and depth of its reach, and of the systems of power it manufactures and maintains.