Central Americans historically have been denied U.S. asylum. From the moment they arrive, they become entangled in a punitive system that criminalizes them through an intricate network of social control sustained by state and private companies. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in rural Kansas between 2016 and 2020 and interviews with Maya Guatemalan women and men asylum seekers, we examine the race and gender power dynamics reproduced through the asylum process that mimics the penal system. We examine three encounters with the asylum system: (1) the credible fear interview, (2) cash bonds, and (3) alternatives to detention programs. The asylum process (re)produces a continuum of state control that reflects the punishing tactics of the carceral state, leaving women and men