Deportation concerns

As mentioned in a previous ‘Letter from America’, I arrived in the USA in 1960. I was able to stay, based on a temporary visa, which I converted into USA citizenship in September 1972. I now had, and I still have, dual citizenship, both of the UK and USA. I mention this because the current situation in the USA makes me consider whether I really want to stay here! With my extended family here, that is a brief thought and highly unlikely to be put into action.

However, even that brief thought is indicative of the unease I feel regarding the current President and his acolytes. Each day brings with it new stories about families being torn apart and children sent to countries where they might not speak the language and will often be separated from their families.

There is little or no notice given to the length of time these families have lived in the USA, nor the importance of the work they pursue. At one level they tend to be assigned to low-level activity at low wages in jobs that are spurned by most Americans. As these groups are removed, it becomes apparent that there will be significant gaps in these job activities with no one eager to take them over.

The whole process of mass deportation reduces economic variables such as gross domestic product, due to scale effects. The deportation is projected to reduce the wages of highly skilled workers, compromising 63% of workers. It is estimated that permanent deport would cost US$900 billion (approximately £670 billion) over the first ten years.

Then there is the sheer barbarism of helmeted and masked uniformed and weaponed troops conducting the arrests and transportation of the chosen ‘victims’. As we witness this barbarism, we are starting to see pushback from the judicial branch.

President Donald Trump came into office promising the largest mass deportation in US history, targeting the more than ten million unauthorised migrants living in the United States. Since then, data shows border crossings have plummeted, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests have doubled and the number of people in detention is at an all-time high.

As these deportations continue, the country awaits the effects of the deportations and the ability to fill the gaps so caused. In addition to the trauma, violence or abuse experienced prior to migration or during detention, many immigrants who are deported return to extremely dangerous and often turbulent environments in their countries of origin. Some even face torture, abuse, rape or murder. Researchers at the Global Migration Project at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism developed a database recording people who had been deported and then faced with death or other harms.

The researchers contacted more than 200 local legal aid organisations, domestic violence shelters and immigrants’ rights groups nationwide, as well as migrant shelters, humanitarian operations, law offices and mortuaries across Central America, and also interviewed several families. Their database includes numerous cases where deportations resulted in harm, including kidnapping, torture, rape and murder (Stillman, 2018). This is especially important to consider given 79% of families screened in family detention centres have a ‘credible fear’ of persecution if they returned to the countries from which they migrated.
The deportation has been conducted in a ruthless fashion and only time will tell the effects.

This article has been extracted from several press issues on the subject of forced deportation.