Deportation is the process of removing someone from the United States to another country. People may be removed for a variety of reasons, including criminal activity or immigration law violations. The removal process is overseen by an immigration judge. If a person is deported, they will usually not be allowed to return to the United States for several years, if at all. Deportation also has significant financial and emotional impacts on those who are affected.
Currently, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prioritizes the identification and removal of individuals with criminal records and those who are recent migrants from the border. A mass deportation operation would require the agency to expand its operations and deploy significantly more agents throughout the country. This would result in a substantial increase in the number of individuals placed in detention and the length of time they remain there. It would also impose enormous costs to the government.
A massive deportation operation would exacerbate the well-being of both legal and undocumented immigrants, as well as their families and communities. Undocumented immigrants already face significant economic and social vulnerabilities, such as a lack of access to legal employment opportunities. A mass deportation campaign could further erode their ability to contribute to the economy. It would also likely result in family separations and create a climate of fear and anxiety in the broader community, especially at sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals, and churches.
Many people who are subject to a deportation order live with mixed-status households, consisting of both U.S. citizens and non-citizens. Deportation campaigns have the potential to disrupt these households and inflict considerable harms on children, who are especially vulnerable to trauma and distress when their parents are removed from the country. A mass deportation campaign could likewise undermine the integrity of American society by encouraging vigilantism and xenophobia.
While the aims of a deportation policy are important, the magnitude and intensity of its harms must be considered on a case-by-case basis. Whether the state’s aims outweigh the significance and intensity of a particular individual’s harms will depend on the deportee’s long-settledness, her health, her connection to her home country, the nature of any crimes committed, her ability to return to that country voluntarily, and other factors.
To remove the vast majority of the nation’s undocumented population, ICE and local law enforcement agencies would need to conduct wide-ranging, expansive raids and sweeps that would involve searching every home and apartment building in the country, as well as public locations such as schools, churches, and workplaces. Such activities would rely heavily on racial and ethnic profiling and be highly disruptive to the lives of millions of people. Many of those targeted for deportation are currently working and raising their families in America; they could be forced to leave the country at their own expense, or sent back to their countries of origin where they might face persecution or danger. Moreover, many of the countries from which the United States would seek to remove individuals are “recalcitrant” and do not permit the transfer of deportees.