The danger of deportation hangs over the head of virtually every noncitizen in the United States. In the complexities and inconsistencies of immigration law, one can find a reason to deport almost any noncitizen at almost any time. In recent years, the system has been used with unprecedented vigor against millions of deportees. We are a nation of immigrants--but which ones The danger of deportation hangs over the head of virtually every noncitizen in the United States. In the complexities and inconsistencies of immigration law, one can find a reason to deport almost any noncitizen at almost any time. In recent years, the system has been used with unprecedented vigor against millions of deportees. We are a nation of immigrants--but which ones do we want, and what do we do with those that we don't? These questions have troubled American law and politics since colonial times. "Deportation Nation" is a chilling history of communal self-idealization and self-protection. The post-Revolutionary Alien and Sedition Laws, the Fugitive Slave laws, the Indian "removals," the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Palmer Raids, the internment of the Japanese Americans--all sought to remove those whose origins suggested they could never become "true" Americans. And for more than a century, millions of Mexicans have conveniently served as cheap labor, crossing a border that was not official until the early twentieth century and being sent back across it when they became a burden. By illuminating the shadowy corners of American history, Daniel Kanstroom shows that deportation has long been a legal tool to control immigrants' lives and is used with increasing crudeness in a globalized but xenophobic world.
Deportation Nation: Outsiders in American History
The danger of deportation hangs over the head of virtually every noncitizen in the United States. In the complexities and inconsistencies of immigration law, one can find a reason to deport almost any noncitizen at almost any time. In recent years, the system has been used with unprecedented vigor against millions of deportees. We are a nation of immigrants--but which ones The danger of deportation hangs over the head of virtually every noncitizen in the United States. In the complexities and inconsistencies of immigration law, one can find a reason to deport almost any noncitizen at almost any time. In recent years, the system has been used with unprecedented vigor against millions of deportees. We are a nation of immigrants--but which ones do we want, and what do we do with those that we don't? These questions have troubled American law and politics since colonial times. "Deportation Nation" is a chilling history of communal self-idealization and self-protection. The post-Revolutionary Alien and Sedition Laws, the Fugitive Slave laws, the Indian "removals," the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Palmer Raids, the internment of the Japanese Americans--all sought to remove those whose origins suggested they could never become "true" Americans. And for more than a century, millions of Mexicans have conveniently served as cheap labor, crossing a border that was not official until the early twentieth century and being sent back across it when they became a burden. By illuminating the shadowy corners of American history, Daniel Kanstroom shows that deportation has long been a legal tool to control immigrants' lives and is used with increasing crudeness in a globalized but xenophobic world.
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César Cuauhtémoc –
this book presents a scathing, detailed argument about the social control origins and goals of deportation law. kanstroom, a professor at boston college law school, does a wonderful job of incorporating his research of the origins of deportation law in the 18th and 19th centuries with his experience as a practitioner under the modern immigration law scheme. he uncovers the thread of racism and nativism that influenced much of immigration law. as a subset of immigration law, deportation, he argue this book presents a scathing, detailed argument about the social control origins and goals of deportation law. kanstroom, a professor at boston college law school, does a wonderful job of incorporating his research of the origins of deportation law in the 18th and 19th centuries with his experience as a practitioner under the modern immigration law scheme. he uncovers the thread of racism and nativism that influenced much of immigration law. as a subset of immigration law, deportation, he argues, is a useful tool to exclude undesirables--from french canadians in 18th century new england to early 20th century radicals (e.g., anarchists like emma goldman) to today's immigrants from the americas. in addition to his well-written history of the development of deportation, i most enjoyed kanstroom's discussion of the earliest deportation regimes that targeted poor people and free blacks. in the context of today's rising nativism, the idea that deportation is used as social control--that is, as a way of getting rid of unwanted people--is a powerful message because it's a reminder that ideology of deportation remains the same; it's only the targeted people who change.
Alice –
In his book, Deportation Nation: Outsiders in American History, Professor Daniel Kanstroom succeeds in nothing less than reframing the immigration debate. Like a wide-angle photographer, Kanstroom captures not just his subject but also the breadth and depth of the background. He accomplishes this feat by telling the history of deportation as one of laws aimed not only at foreigners, but also at the unwanted and the undesirable, writ large. Writing from this perspective, Kanstroom links modern de In his book, Deportation Nation: Outsiders in American History, Professor Daniel Kanstroom succeeds in nothing less than reframing the immigration debate. Like a wide-angle photographer, Kanstroom captures not just his subject but also the breadth and depth of the background. He accomplishes this feat by telling the history of deportation as one of laws aimed not only at foreigners, but also at the unwanted and the undesirable, writ large. Writing from this perspective, Kanstroom links modern deportation law to the most notorious episodes in U.S. history, from the forcible expulsion of Native Americans from their homelands to the persecution of ideological dissidents during the Red Scare. Kanstroom’s key insight is that deportation “is now—and always has been—about much more than border control. It implicates the concepts of belonging, cleansing, and scapegoating, as the very term ‘illegal alien’ demonstrates.” The book thus does not start in the usual place in American immigration history: the post-Civil War laws that excluded Chinese laborers. For Kanstroom, deportation’s roots go much farther back, to the days before the founding of the United States. In colonial times, many towns employed a process called “warning out” ostensibly to protect themselves from the cost of supporting poor people by forcing them to leave. Officials utilized the system to rid their towns not just of the poor, but also the unruly, “people of bad morals” and any other transients who did not fit into the social order. Kanstroom sees this social control function reflected later in immigration laws that excluded lunatics, idiots, and persons likely to become public charges and, eventually, expelled those who committed crimes after entering the United States. Kanstroom also finds the precursor to the watered-down procedural protections of modern-day deportation in the fugitive slave laws of the antebellum period. The alleged fugitive slave had no right to a jury trial or other due process protections. All that was required to send him back to the slaveholding states was prima facie proof of ownership in a summary hearing. These proceedings—like deportation proceedings today—did not take place in Article III courts and were frequently based on flimsy evidence, with minimal or no judicial oversight and few, if any, constitutional protections. For Kanstroom, the acceptance of diluted legal protections for an unpopular minority then allowed the same fate to befall immigrants later. Kanstroom points out other interesting parallels as well. The plenary power doctrine—a cornerstone of immigration jurisprudence—provides that the legislative and executive branches of government have the power to regulate immigration largely free from judicial review as a necessary attribute of national sovereignty. The Supreme Court first promulgated the doctrine in the Chinese Exclusion Case in 1889, but Kanstroom argues that the Court had accepted a similar scheme long before then when it dealt with questions regarding the removal of American Indians from their ancestral homelands. Earlier courts had set the stage for the plenary power doctrine against immigrants when they approved of a model where the federal government had “inherent and plenary power” over “unassimilated, tribal, non-citizen, indigenous peoples.” The connections that Kanstroom makes between past and present are both numerous and enlightening. Through it all, he demonstrates—convincingly—that discrimination against foreigners cannot be separated from racial, ethnic, class, and ideological discrimination. He hammers home his argument that the state has always used deportation law as a form of social control, particularly against people of color. Further, he argues that the availability of such unchecked governmental discretion is both arbitrary and ultimately dangerous, not just for foreigners but also for citizens. It is a valuable point unfortunately absent in today’s immigration debate, which is largely couched in terms of controlling the border. To be sure, Deportation Nation is not without its faults. While the wide angle of Kanstroom’s lens serves as a strength that provokes his readers to think about immigration law in a new way, it is at times a weakness that occasionally distorts his perspective. Kanstroom occasionally gets carried away with finding novel historical connections. At one point, for example, he makes a facile and unnecessary comparison between the deportation system and the transcontinental railroad, both of which “implicate our grandest national aspirations and hide some of our most shameful historical truths” and “are in dramatic need of repair.” The book also suffers from an uneven tone: At times it reads like a thriller (for example, when Kanstroom expertly describes the sagas of the government’s repeated attempts to deport gangster Carlos Marcello and labor agitator Harry Bridges), and at other times like a law review article. More importantly, Kanstroom misses the opportunity to close his book with a powerful examination of where we are now and where we are headed. Kanstroom’s treatment of key developments in the last fifty years—and particularly in the post-9/11 era—seems rushed and lacking in the intricate detail of, say, his account of the Chinese exclusion laws. His brief discussion of the “War on Terror” in his introduction deserved a more thorough exploration. Instead of spending his last chapter on the legal concept of discretion, Kanstroom could have done a better job contextualizing the post-9/11 immigration debate, which, though expressed in the language of national security, is—like much of deportation law –a direct descendent of laws of social control. These flaws detract only slightly, though, from a thought-provoking legal and social history of U.S. deportation law. Deportation Nation is an unrelenting horror story of law being used as a tool of oppression, as a legitimizing vehicle by which the majority tramples on the lives of the undesirable, the other, the less fortunate. Kanstroom offers little hope that the enduring patterns of racism, xenophobia, and hardening of the law can change. Indeed, they begin to seem inevitable. What is lost in Kanstroom’s story of law as oppression is that of law as redemption, of the marginalized fighting back, and of advocates—like Kanstroom himself, who directs an immigration and asylum clinic at Boston College Law School—who rise to their aid. This bleak portrait is disheartening, but realistic based on the facts and evidence and he marshals. If national identity is written in history, then the American identity, viewed through Daniel Kanstroom’s eyes, is a dark one in need of salvation.
Giorgia –
Really good in-depth discussion of the American story of deportation, and it draws some really important ties to our history as a country. Highly recommend if you want to get a better, more in depth grasp on immigration and the rights that non-citizens are actually afforded.
Leah –
didnt finish it.
Azusena –
Allows the reader to think critically, a great book to read for anyone who wants to understand the complexity of immigration and deportation.
Jessi –
A compelling history of deportation in America. Kanstroom argues that deportations has evolved as a form of social control over noncitizens. He addresses the lack of judicial oversight over many deportation cases as well as the increased application of retroactive laws in the deportation process. The book is a little weak at looking at some of the most current court cases related to deportation, but he provides a strong overview.
Kerry –
I heard a lot about this class in my human rights class so I decided to go out and read it. It's good so far. I heard a lot about this class in my human rights class so I decided to go out and read it. It's good so far.
Kevin Burns –
Excellent account of the history of U.S. immigration law.
Meredith –
Boring but really really informative. I feel like an expert on the history of deportation now. Cool...but depressing.
Cecilia –
Read it in my Immigration Law class. Interesting legal and historical analysis of the nation's deportation system. Read it in my Immigration Law class. Interesting legal and historical analysis of the nation's deportation system.
Kjsbreda –
Kelly –
lots of legal jargon.
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