The politics of deportation and the restrictionist movement in the post-9/11 era

Abstract

The first reports that the Obama administration had deported a record number of people came as a surprise to many. As both Presidents Obama and Bush have attempted to pass moderate immigration reform laws that allowed for legalization, we must ask from where the impetus for driving up the deportation rate has come. The explanation leads to the passage of Secure Communities in 2008, which allowed state and local law enforcement to identify undocumented immigrants through federal information sharing. I seek to explain the social dynamics behind the passage of Secure Communities starting with a review of previous cycles of rapid deportation in US history. I then examine the political activities of the contemporary immigrant restrictionist movement for an understanding of their role.

Keywords:

• restrictionism
• Secure Communities
• deportation
• immigration policy
• border enforcement
• nativism

Notes

1. While the Klan continued to advocate segregation, its members shifted the focus of their ‘patriotism’ away from African-Americans during this time, even arguing that they were in favor of ‘protecting’ them from competition arising from the onslaught of immigrants.

2. The U.S. Census Bureau under the Department of Commerce used the terms ‘Latino’ and ‘Hispanic’ interchangeably in the 2010 report.