![US-Mexico border fence](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/US-Mexico_border_fence.jpg)
Deportation and removal from the United States occurs when the
U.S. government orders a person to leave the country. In fiscal year 2014,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...
conducted 315,943 removals. Criteria for deportations are set out in .
In the 105 years between 1892 and 1997, the United States deported 2.1 million people. Between 1993 and 2001, during the
Presidency of Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...
, about 1,870,000 people were deported. Between 2001 and 2008, during the
Presidency of George W. Bush
George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following a narrow victory over Democratic i ...
, about 2.0 million people were deported, while between 2009 and 2016, during the
Presidency of Barack Obama
Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican n ...
, about 3.2 million people were deported.
History
18th century
The first deportations from the United States took place in 1794 by
, following a rush of poor Irish immigrants to the U.S. east coast, under a 1794 Massachusetts law which permitted such deportations.
A few years later, the
U.S. Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
passed the
Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, under which new powers were granted to deport non-citizens. Specifically, the Alien Enemies Act allowed the U.S. government to deport any male over the age of 14 who was from a nation who was considered an enemy during war. Also, the Alien Friend Act granted the president the power to deport any non-citizen who was suspected to be plotting against the U.S. government.
19th century
The
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplom ...
was the first U.S. law that required the exclusion and deportation of a particular racial group. Chinese immigrants already in the country were only allowed to re-enter the country if they left with certifications.
In addition, they were stripped of the right to U.S. citizenship, while the possibility of being deported remained.
When the act expired, Congress passed the
Geary Act
The Geary Act was a United States law that extended the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 by adding onerous new requirements. It was written by California Representative Thomas J. Geary and was passed by Congress on .
The law required all Chinese r ...
which extended the Chinese Exclusion Act by another ten years, and changed the living conditions for Chinese immigrants living in the U.S. as it stated that they had to have a certificate of residence and could be deported if they didn't have it.
20th century
In 1919 and 1920, thousands of immigrants were deported as the
Palmer Raids began to take place. These raids occurred under the Justice Department, and were led by
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
A. Mitchell Palmer
Alexander Mitchell Palmer (May 4, 1872 – May 11, 1936), was an American attorney and politician who served as the 50th United States attorney general from 1919 to 1921. He is best known for overseeing the Palmer Raids during the Red Scare ...
who established the General Intelligence Division within the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
.
The
National Immigration Act of 1924 regulated immigration in the U.S. and established a quota for granting visas. Under this law, only 2% of immigrants from a certain nationality were given visas while it did not apply to immigrants from Asia.
In the 1930s, during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, between 355,000 and 1.8 million Mexicans and Mexican Americans were deported or repatriated to Mexico, an estimated 40 to 60% of whom were U.S. citizens - overwhelmingly children. This became known as the
Mexican Repatriation
The Mexican Repatriation ( es, link=no, Repatriación mexicana) was the repatriation and deportation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans to Mexico from the United States during the Great Depression between 1929 and 1939. Estimates of how many we ...
. Some of the repatriations by local governments took place in the form of raids. At least 82,000 people were formally deported between 1929 and 1935 by the government. Voluntary repatriations were more common than deportations.
The
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (), also known as the McCarran–Walter Act, codified under Title 8 of the United States Code (), governs immigration to and citizenship in the United States. It came into effect on June 27, 1952. Before ...
created preferences for immigration to the U.S. based on desired skilled-workers and family reunification. Aside from that, it also made the process of deportation easier, as it permitted people to be fined as well as arrested if they were living with an
undocumented immigrant
Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwa ...
or rented a home to one. The rise of Mexican deportation continued during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, through a program established by the collaboration of the U.S. government and the
Mexican government
The Federal government of Mexico (alternately known as the Government of the Republic or ' or ') is the national government of the United Mexican States, the central government established by its constitution to share sovereignty over the republi ...
, known as the
Bracero Program.
This program allowed for the short-term legal immigration of Mexican immigrants to the U.S. for the purposes of filling the gap of agricultural workers due to the war. Along with that, a wave of undocumented Mexican immigrants migrated to the U.S. in search of these job opportunities as well.
As a result,
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
Herbert Brownell Jr.
Herbert Brownell Jr. (February 20, 1904 – May 1, 1996) was an American lawyer and Republican politician. From 1953 to 1957, he served as United States Attorney General in the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Early life
Brow ...
created
Operation Wetback
Operation Wetback was an immigration law enforcement initiative created by Joseph Swing, the Director of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in cooperation with the Mexican government. The program was implemented in ...
, which was responsible for the deportation of around 300,000 undocumented Mexican immigrants.
In 1996, the
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), , was introduced to the United States Congress in April 1995 as a Senate Bill (). The bill was passed with broad bipartisan support by Congress in response to the bombings of th ...
created a new approach to deporting terrorists, as defined by the Act. It did so, by expanding the list of committed crimes that could lead to the deportation of an undocumented immigrant. It also granted the U.S. government power to deport
permanent residents
Permanent residency is a person's legal resident status in a country or territory of which such person is not a citizen but where they have the right to reside on a permanent basis. This is usually for a permanent period; a person with such ...
who were convicted of an aggravated
felony
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...
. In addition, the
strengthened the
U.S. border control by establishing criminal penalties for things like using fake visas and permitted the deportation of undocumented immigrants who committed a
misdemeanor
A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than adm ...
.
21st century
![2019 US Mexico Border Crossing apprehension (48036606282)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/2019_US_Mexico_Border_Crossing_apprehension_%2848036606282%29.jpg)
President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
signed the
Homeland Security Act in 2002 under which the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...
was created. Following the establishment of this department, enforcement procedures intensified with the creation of subset organizations such as the Bureau of Border Security along with the creation of the detention and removal program. During
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
's presidency, over 2.5 million undocumented immigrants were deported. Obama focused on the removal of criminals, and passed an
executive order
In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of th ...
titled
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, colloquially referred to as DACA, is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals with unlawful presence in the United States after being brought to the country as children to receive ...
in 2012, providing temporary amnesty from deportation to undocumented immigrants who migrated to the U.S at a young age.
The federal funding for immigration enforcement in 2012 increased to $18 billion, which allowed for the immense increase in illegal immigration enforcement and deportations.
During
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
’s presidency the number of undocumented immigrants deported decreased drastically.
While under Trump's presidency,
U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement has conducted hundreds of raids in workspaces and sent removal orders to families, they are not deporting as many immigrants as were deported under Obama's presidency. In Obama's first three years in office, around 1.18 million people were deported, while around 800,000 deportations took place under Trump in his three years of presidency.
Criticisms
Deportation and removal from the United States has drawn scrutiny, especially with detention and removal practices of people from the United States.
Attorneys have criticized ICE for moving children from shelters into ICE detention facilities. ICE age verification methods have proven fundamentally flawed in assigning ages to minors. ICE uses dental radiographs of third molars to determine whether a detained person is a minor or adult, but these radiographs are often flawed and the detained people, nor their advocates, give consent to these tests. A third molar dental radiograph test only estimates a general age range, which regularly crosses between an adult and a minor. The effects of these radiograph tests has led to the misplacement of the minors in adult immigration detention facilities, and sometimes even adults placed in minor detention facilities. ''This American Life'' produced a story of a 19-year-old woman who was thought to be the victim of human trafficking. After attempting to tell immigration authorities her real age, a dental radiograph test was administered to her that categorized her as a minor.
Additionally, critics have blasted the detention period before deportation while a detained person's case is in litigation. News outlets uncovered as many as 150 buildings, from government buildings to office parks, and 80 hospitals that work as temporary holding sites for detained migrants. Critics, though, routinely refer to these holding locations as "black sites."
This has also been criticized for its economic and employment impact.
Many agricultural industries especially the strawberry harvests
in California and
in Florida have greatly profited from lower labor costs.
See also .
Deportated criticise it as an example of the military's abandonment of those who defend the country.
Top 10 countries of origin of deportees in the U.S.
Court cases
In 1893, Chinese immigrants challenged U.S. deportation laws in ''
Fong Yue Ting v. United States''. The
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
ruled that the U.S., as a sovereign nation, could deport undocumented immigrants and such immigrants did not have the right to a legal hearing because deportation was a method of enforcing policies and not a punishment for a crime.
In ''
Yamataya v. Fisher
''Yamataya v. Fisher'', 189 U.S. 86 (1903), popularly known as the Japanese Immigrant Case, is a Supreme Court of the United States case about the federal government's power to exclude and deport certain classes of alien immigrants under the Immig ...
'' (1993), also known as the ''Japanese Immigrant Case'', the Supreme Court ruled that the decisions of administrative or executive officers acting under their delegated powers constituted due process of law and were not subject to
judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...
.
In fiscal year 2013, 83% of deportation orders came from immigration officers. In 1904, free speech activists attempted to defend an immigrant from
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
named
John Turner
John Napier Wyndham Turner (June 7, 1929September 19, 2020) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Canada from June to September 1984. He served as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and leader of t ...
, who was a self-proclaimed anarchist, in ''
Turner v. Williams''. These activists failed to do so, as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant undocumented immigrants the right to freedom of speech and defended the government's power to deport immigrants in this court's ruling.
In April 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5–4 decision in ''
Barton v. Barr'', expanded the list of committed crimes that could lead to the deportation of immigrants, to include those who have
green card
A green card, known officially as a permanent resident card, is an identity document which shows that a person has permanent residency in the United States. ("The term 'lawfully admitted for permanent residence' means the status of having been ...
s. The suit was filed by Jamaican immigrant Andre Barton who tried to get the order for his removal cancelled.
Economic effects
Deportations are feared to increase agricultural labor costs, especially
in California's and
in Florida's strawberry production.
For many decades the
Immigration and Naturalization Service
The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003.
Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, ...
(INS) and
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) chose not to do any significant enforcement against
those working in agriculture,
hospitality
Hospitality is the relationship between a guest and a host, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill, including the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis de Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de J ...
, or
construction
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...
.
As a result of the escalated deportation raids beginning in 2018, farms in California especially were short labor.
This created a vacuum for any potential other workers, and some of those entering this job area were high school students.
Most of these students dropped out to join family members who were already working as farmworkers.
Some employers have declared their non-citizen agricultural workers to be
essential worker
A key worker, critical worker or essential worker is a public-sector or private-sector employee who is considered to provide an essential service. The term has been used in the United Kingdom in the context of workers who may find it difficult ...
s as defined by the
Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...
.
They hope to continue working uninterrupted and to forestall deportation actions during the pandemic.
In
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
specifically the state
Department of Industrial Relations prohibits employers from threatening workers with deportation from the country.
For
construction employers this is enforced by the department's Labor Enforcement Task Force.
Deportation reduces the available employees of
the country's hospitality industry.
This has resulted in unfilled jobs.
Haitians in Florida are especially frequently employed in the state's hospitality industry and their immigration status greatly impacts that industry.
Much of the
US restaurant industry is illegal and so deportation affects the
labor supply
In mainstream economic theories, the labour supply is the total hours (adjusted for intensity of effort) that workers wish to work at a given real wage rate. It is frequently represented graphically by a labour supply curve, which shows hypotheti ...
for this economic sector also.
The
Sanctuary Restaurants project lobbies the
United States restaurant industry The United States restaurant industry was projected at $899 billion in sales for 2020 by the National Restaurant Association
The National Restaurant Association is a restaurant industry business association in the United States, representing mor ...
to obstruct immigration enforcement against their employees.
The vast majority of those who are both employed and subject to deportation are
in construction or
in hospitality.
See also
*
List of people deported or removed from the United States
The following is an incomplete list of notable people who have been deported from the United States. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), particularly the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Executive Office for Immigration Revie ...
References
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