Research reveals that over 96% of deportation orders in the U.S. target individuals from non-white countries, highlighting systemic racial biases in immigration policies.
Who gets deported in the United States? A recent report from the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy, in collaboration with Million Dollar Hoods, sheds light on this pressing issue. The findings indicate a troubling trend: over 96% of deportation orders issued from 1895 to 2022 were directed at individuals from non-white countries.
During a briefing on September 19, hosted by American Community Media, experts involved in the project, titled Mapping Deportations, presented insights into their interactive maps and visualizations. These tools trace the history of deportation policies back to 1895, revealing patterns of racial bias that persist today.
The panel included prominent figures such as Kelly Lytle Hernández, the Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History at UCLA and founding director of Million Dollar Hoods; Mariah Tso, a G.I.S. Specialist at UCLA; and Ahilan Arulanantham, Faculty Co-Director at the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law.
The interactive maps allow users to delve into data by year and region, as well as by categories such as race, country, and enforcement tactics. These visualizations incorporate context-rich quotes from lawmakers, highlighting the racial and ideological biases that underpin immigration policies. Features like racing bar charts and log-scale transformations make complex data more accessible and comprehensible. The website connects historical deportation data to current immigration policies, providing a clearer understanding of long-standing systemic patterns of racial discrimination.
According to Hernández, the website’s foundation lies in three significant forced migrations that shaped modern America: the expulsion of Native nations, the transatlantic slave trade, and contemporary mass deportations. While maps and visualizations exist for the removal of Native nations and the slave trade, there has been a notable absence of data on mass deportation.
“I knew, as a historian, that there had been more than 50 million deportation orders in U.S. history, which is a mind-boggling number, but no one had really scraped the data and created a dynamic map showing over time the patterns of deportation,” Hernández explained.
The goal of the website, according to Arulanantham, is to serve as an educational tool that presents a more honest narrative of immigration law and policy history, telling a rich, contextual story that has often been overlooked.
In collaboration with lead cartographer Mariah Tso, the researchers meticulously mapped every deportation order from 1895 to 2022. Tso noted that the data reveals a consistent pattern: over 96% of deportation orders have targeted predominantly non-white countries, reflecting policies steeped in racism.
The visualizations utilize publicly available data from federal authorities, mapping immigration statistics and deportation orders by country or region. Each dot on the map represents deportation orders, with larger dots indicating higher numbers of orders. Historically, prior to 1934, authorities tracked deportations by race or ethnicity, while post-1934, the focus shifted to nationality.
Notably, Mexico has consistently led in the number of deportation orders since 1916.
Arulanantham, who has dedicated 25 years to challenging federal immigration policies on behalf of immigrants and their rights, expressed concern over the stark racial discrimination evident in immigration policy, even under the Biden administration. He cited the Title 42 program, which excluded individuals from the U.S. based on COVID-19 concerns, applying it harshly to Haitians, Afghans, and Central Americans, while allowing virtually all Ukrainians to enter.
“There’s obvious racial discrimination even now that’s driving who gets to come in and also who gets deported,” Arulanantham stated, referencing quotes from lawmakers across different eras. He highlighted former President Donald Trump’s infamous remark regarding immigrants from Haiti and other countries, questioning, “Why are we having people from shithole countries coming here?”
The historical roots of racial discrimination in immigration laws can be traced back to a 1929 law motivated by eugenic ideologies, which remains influential today.
The website provides a historical overview of deportation data organized into five major eras, illustrating the laws enforced, communities targeted, and changing enforcement priorities. Hernández noted that from 1790 to 1875, during the period of slavery before the Civil War, the U.S. immigration system was designed to maintain a white-dominated republic, targeting free black migrants for exclusion.
From 1876 to 1929, the federal government sought to establish a whites-only immigration regime, excluding and punishing non-white immigrants. Despite these efforts, black and non-white immigration persisted, often relegating individuals to low-wage jobs, thereby reinforcing racial hierarchies.
During the Cold War, Congress continued to uphold the whites-only immigration system. Hernández pointed out that following the 1965 Immigration Act, new laws and Supreme Court rulings perpetuated racism within the immigration system, including the 1975 Brignoni-Ponce decision, which legitimized the use of race in immigration law enforcement.
Since 1991, the U.S. federal government has conducted over 7 million deportations and issued more than 25 million voluntary departure orders, establishing what Hernández describes as the largest immigrant detention and deportation system in the world.
Arulanantham cautioned that the current escalation of U.S. immigration policy echoes sentiments from the 1920s, where fears of “morally contagious” individuals from other countries were prevalent. He noted that racist rhetoric continues to influence public perception, as seen in Trump’s claims about Haitian immigrants and unfounded rumors regarding Venezuelans.
“Racism was baked into the immigration system over time, dating all the way back to the antebellum period, and is yet to be fully purged,” Hernández concluded, emphasizing the need for a critical examination of immigration policies and their historical implications.
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