The Deportation Machine

America's Long History of Expelling Immigrants

Adam Goodman

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780691204208
  9780691182155
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691201993
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

The unknown history of deportation and of the fear that shapes immigrants' lives

Constant headlines about deportations, detention camps, and border walls drive urgent debates about immigration and what it means to be an American in the twenty-first century. The Deportation Machine traces the long and troubling history of the US government's systematic efforts to terrorize and expel immigrants over the past 140 years. This provocative, eye-opening book provides needed historical perspective on one of the most pressing social and political issues of our time.

In a sweeping and engaging narrative, Adam Goodman examines how federal, state, and local officials have targeted various groups for expulsion, from Chinese and Europeans at the turn of the twentieth century to Central Americans and Muslims today. He reveals how authorities have singled out Mexicans, nine out of ten of all deportees, and removed most of them not by orders of immigration judges but through coercive administrative procedures and calculated fear campaigns. Goodman uncovers the machine's three primary mechanisms—formal deportations, "voluntary" departures, and self-deportations—and examines how public officials have used them to purge immigrants from the country and exert control over those who remain. Exposing the pervasive roots of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, The Deportation Machine introduces the politicians, bureaucrats, businesspeople, and ordinary citizens who have pushed for and profited from expulsion.

This revelatory book chronicles the devastating human costs of deportation and the innovative strategies people have adopted to fight against the machine and redefine belonging in ways that transcend citizenship.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Introduction: Understanding the Machine
• One: Creating the Mechanisms of Expulsion at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
• Two: Coerced Removal from the Great Depression through Operation Wetback
• Three: The Human Costs of the Business of Deportation
• Four: Manufacturing Crisis and Fomenting Fear at the Dawn of the Age of Mass Expulsion
• Five: Fighting the Machine in the Streets and in the Courts
• Six: Deportation in an Era of Militarized Borders and Mass Incarceration
• Epilogue: Reckoning with the Machine
• Note on Sources and Language
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• Series List