Who’s Really Being Targeted by Blanket Deportation?

Often, when people imagine a deportee, they tend to think along stereotypical. Perhaps they picture a person of Mexican or Central American descent being escorted into a jail or trucked back across the southern border. In reality, however, this is a narrow and inaccurate view of who is actually being targeted by deportations.

Blanket deportations frequently involve targeting entire communities. They often disregard each person’s individual circumstances, and those of many races get caught in the fray. What results is mass deportations that impact increasingly diverse communities consisting of a broad array of ethnic groups.

A Historical Pattern of Targeted Expulsions

Mass deportation is nothing new. The United States has targeted large groups of people for deportation for nearly 100 years. In all cases, deportation efforts stem from national anxiety or tense economic conditions.

• Mexican repatriation (1930s). During the Great Depression, around 1 million people of Mexican descent were deported from the United States. The purported reason was to free up jobs for American citizens.  Many of those forced to leave the country were actually U.S. citizens by birth, so their deportation violated their rights as citizens.
• Operation Wetback (1954). Operation Wetback focused on Mexican laborers in the southwest area of the United States. The operation consisted of mass roundups of workers, and more than a million people ended up getting deported. Many were exposed to inhumane conditions.
• Post-9/11 Deportations. After the September 11th attacks, the US government began targeting Arab, Muslim, and South Asian communities. Residents were forced to comply with registration programs and were subjected to increased surveillance. This resulted in thousands of deportations, as well as people who voluntarily left the country out of fear.

Beyond the Border—Communities at Risk

The stereotypical profile of the kinds of immigrants who get deported is misleading. While many portray Latino immigrants as deportee poster children, the racial breakdown is far more diverse.

• Jamaican and other Caribbean Immigrants. Whether it’s due to racial profiling or aggressive immigration enforcement, Jamaicans, Haitians, and other Caribbean descendants often end up the targets of deportation.
• African immigrants.  Africans hailing from a number of countries often end up the targets of deportation schemes. Similar to those of Caribbean backgrounds, their darker complexions make them easy targets for racial profiling, regardless of whether or not they’ve actually committed crimes.
• Southeast Asian refugees. People originally from Vietnam, Cambodia, and other Southeast Asian countries often end up the targets of deportation due to crimes they’ve committed in the past. An offense committed decades ago can be enough to get someone shipped out of the country due to zero-tolerance policies.
• Middle Eastern immigrants. After the 9/11 attacks, Middle Eastern immigrants became the focus of profiling, surveillance, and deportation. The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) profiled men from certain Middle Eastern countries, forcing them to register with the government. This led to thousands of deportations. 
• Europeans. Many Europeans also face deportation, even though media outlets don’t always feature their stories. In many cases, they are undocumented, having visited the U.S. and simply staying beyond their visa’s limitations. While some face deportation after crossing paths with the law, others are subject to mass deportations based on the demographics of their communities.

The Role of Policy and Prosecutorial Discretion

Prosecutorial discretion, which is the authority granted to prosecutors to choose whether or not to pursue a case, plays a major role in deciding the fate of potential deportees. Public policy is another crucial factor. An administration can decide to implement mass deportation efforts based on whatever reason fits their political agenda.

For example, President Obama frequently deported people who posed a threat due to criminal activity. This resulted in over 3 million deportations during his two terms as president. The intended effect was to remove criminals from the country, specifically those who hadn’t earned the right of citizenship. 

President Trump is casting a wider net. His deportations target anyone who isn’t a legal citizen of the country. The reason he provides is based on his idea that America is being “invaded” by illegal immigrants. He labels the immigration situation as a national security issue.

Employing terms like “invasion” and “national security” invokes war-like sentiments. It symbolically positions immigrants as combatants against the American people. 

Regardless of which administration deploys mass deportation tactics, each effort comes with labels of dubious accuracy. Unfortunately, the deportations that tend to make news headlines often feature those of already disadvantaged populations.

The Human Cost of Mass Deportation Tactics

Mass deportations, especially when executed indiscriminately, have a multi-fold effect on the American fabric. They result in:

• Shattered families, as children get separated from deported parents
• Dismantled communities, as productive members of American neighborhoods, get sent back to their original country
• Economic hardship, both on the families of deportees and those that depend on supply chains in which deportees were working, such as farms and factories

However, the human cost extends farther. Even though many non-Black or Brown people get deported, these don’t often make headlines. Therefore, white Americans may not build a healthy disdain for unjust deportation methodologies. As a result, administrations can often proceed without pushback against their policies, at least from certain constituents.

When deportation efforts are left unchecked, it creates a dangerous precedent, one that can result in a range of civil rights violations. The political backgrounds of officials responsible for mass deportations is as diverse as the deportees themselves. So it’s difficult to scapegoat one party or the other while trying to diagnose the issue.

Regardless of which direction the finger of accusation points, the ultimate victim is freedom. For example, Trump is trying to eliminate birthright citizenship in the U.S. This would mean that people who’ve earned citizenship by virtue of having been born in the United States could have those rights revoked. Whether this is an avalanche started by Trump, Obama tumbled the first stone, Franklin Roosevelt got the gravel rolling back in the 1930s, the end result could crumble the landscape of American freedom.

Correcting misperceptions as a result of biased media coverage, such as the racial identities of deportees, is central to the mission of the Bass Lab’s Second Draft Project. Along the same vein, the Lab’s articles flying under the Bearing Witness banner showcase the untold story of Black West Coast media. To support this reporting, you can donate to the Bass Lab now.