A deportation is an official expulsion of a person from a territory. Deportation is used to remove people from a country when their presence is deemed unlawful or detrimental. It is a powerful instrument that has been used to manage migration and control crime, but is also controversial due to its effects on people’s lives and communities. Deportation can happen to both citizens and non-citizens and may involve a number of different processes and procedures.
Brock argues that the harms of deportation enforcement are disproportionate because they violate basic human rights. I find her approach to be too narrow, and suggest a more systematic framework for evaluating the need and proportionality of harm-infliction that retains responsiveness to the normative subtleties of human rights concerns while providing additional tools for assessing state actions.
During the past few years, we have observed a large increase in the number of people who are subject to deportation proceedings. This is in part due to the Obama administration implementing policies enabled by prior legislation such as 287(g) taskforce agreements that deputized local law enforcement officers to help enforce immigration laws and the Secure Communities program that required law enforcement agencies to share detainee data with ICE.
People who are deemed removable by ICE can be placed on an expedited removal docket if they have been in the country for two or more years or have committed crimes or failed to notify the government of changes in their status. They may have access to a lawyer or not depending on their situation and can request a hearing before an Immigration Judge. The length of time that it takes for a case to be heard depends on whether the individual is being held in detention or not and how many immigration judges are working at a particular court location.
If you are found to be removable by the immigration courts, you can appeal your decision. However, you must first file an appeals case and prove that your removal would be unreasonable. Read more about how to appeal a decision of deportation. You can also seek to leave the country voluntarily before your removal is carried out.
Mass deportations would come at a great cost to immigrants and their families, including US-born children. It could also create a climate of fear and mistrust in immigrant communities, impacting native-born Americans as well through increased vigilantism and hate crimes (3-5). Furthermore, these costs are not spread equally across society – every American taxpayer would shoulder the fiscal burden exacerbated by reduced tax revenue from a devastated labor market (6-8). Deportations have knock-on effects for the economy as a whole and undermine social cohesion and civic trust. Moreover, research shows that deterrence and enforcement do not reliably prevent unauthorized migration flows (7-9). Ultimately, the benefits of a deportation regime are outweighed by its negative effects on people’s lives and communities. Despite this, many states continue to use the power of deportation in their efforts to manage and control immigration.