Deportation: The Origins of U.S. Policy

Before 1882, the U.S. federal government had never formally deported anyone. An act of Congress made Chinese workers the first group of immigrants eligible for deportation, and over the next forty years, lawmakers and judges expanded deportable categories to include prostitutes, anarchists, the sick, and various kinds of criminals. This history of deportation policy shaped the policy options U.S. citizens continue to live with into the present. Deportation policy also plays a part in geopolitics, as deportees have to be sent somewhere. Torrie Hester illustrates that U.S. policy makers were part of a global trend that saw officials from nations around the world either revise older immigrant removal policies or create new ones.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 03 April 2023
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Before 1882, the United States federal government had never formally deported anyone. However, that year, an act of Congress made Chinese workers the first group of immigrants eligible for deportation. Over the next forty years, lawmakers and judges expanded deportable categories to include prostitutes, anarchists, the sick, and various kinds of criminals. The history of that lengthening list shaped the policy options U.S. citizens continue to live with into the present.

Deportation encompasses the uncertain origins of American deportation policy and narrates the halting and disjointed efforts that were undertaken as it evolved from scattered actions in Congress and courtrooms nationwide to become a well-established national policy by the 1920s. Typically perceived from within the nation, deportation policy also plays a role in geopolitics; deportees, after all, must be sent somewhere. By studying deportations out of the United States as well as the deportation of U.S. citizens back to the United States from abroad, Torrie Hester illustrates that U.S. policy makers were part of a global trend that saw officials from nations around the world either revise older immigrant removal policies or create new ones.

A history of immigration policy in the United States and the world, Deportation chronicles the unsystematic emergence of what has become an internationally recognized legal doctrine, the far-reaching impact of which has forever altered what it means to be an immigrant and a citizen.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781512824766