Constant headlines about deportations, detention camps, and border
walls drive urgent debates about immigration and what it means to be
an American in the twenty-first century. The Deportation Machine
traces the long and troubling history of the US government’s
systematic efforts to terrorize and expel immigrants over the past
140 years. This provocative, eye-opening book provides needed
historical perspective on one of the most pressing social and
political issues of our time.
In a sweeping and
engaging narrative, Adam Goodman examines how federal, state, and
local officials have targeted various groups for expulsion, from
Chinese and Europeans at the turn of the twentieth century to Central
Americans and Muslims today. He reveals how authorities have singled
out Mexicans, nine out of ten of all deportees, and removed most of
them not by orders of immigration judges but through coercive
administrative procedures and calculated fear campaigns. Goodman
uncovers the machine’s three primary mechanisms—formal
deportations, “voluntary” departures, and self-deportations—and
examines how public officials have used them to purge immigrants from
the country and exert control over those who remain. Exposing the
pervasive roots of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, The
Deportation Machine introduces the politicians, bureaucrats,
businesspeople, and ordinary citizens who have pushed for and
profited from expulsion.
This revelatory book
chronicles the devastating human costs of deportation and the
innovative strategies people have adopted to fight against the
machine and redefine belonging in ways that transcend citizenship.