Adam Goodman, "The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants" (Princeton UP, 2020)

Jun 2, 2024

Adam Goodman, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago and author of The Deportation Machine, delves into America's long history of immigrant deportation. He reveals three key mechanisms of expulsion, emphasizing how most deportations are informal processes rather than courtroom decisions. Goodman connects historical deportation tactics to contemporary issues like the prison-industrial complex and anti-immigrant sentiments, urging a reevaluation of systemic change within policing and activism. His insights bridge past injustices with present-day challenges.

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INSIGHT

Three Mechanisms Of Removal

Deportation used three mechanisms: formal deportations, coerced 'voluntary departures', and fear-driven self-deportation campaigns.
Goodman shows 85–90% of removals used the latter two, reshaping power beyond courts.

INSIGHT

Federal Power Increased Informal Coercion

Federal control of immigration rose after 1891 but relied on local intimidation to push people out.
Formal authority created incentives for administrative coercion and streamlined expulsions.

ANECDOTE

Anti-Chinese Campaign In Truckee

Charles Fayette McGlashan led anti-Chinese self-deportation in Truckee using boycotts and threats.
Local campaigns like his pressured the federal government to formalize immigration enforcement.

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Many of us know that immigrants have been deported from the United States for well over a century, but has anyone ever asked how? In The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020), author Adam Goodman brings together new archival evidence to write an expansive history of deportation from the United States that threads the late-nineteenth century through to the present.

Goodman, Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino studies as well as history at the University of Illinois at Chicago, argues that the “deportation machine” operated through three main mechanisms: formal deportations, voluntary departures, and self-deportations. But contrary to mainstream assumptions about the U.S. immigration system, the overwhelming majority of deportations throughout the 1900s have not been formal proceedings in immigration court, but instead administrative processes and informal fear campaigns that pushed immigrants out of the country. Our interview with Goodman will cover how the history of deportation is linked with the development of federal power, state coercion, and activist resistance for due process. We also discuss the connections between the deportation machine and the contemporary debate on the prison-industrial complex, anti-immigrant prejudice, and demands for police reform. Far beyond the harsh realities of deportation, this book shows us how the politics of expulsion sought to define who truly belonged in America.

Jaime Sánchez, Jr. is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of History at Princeton University and a scholar of U.S. politics and Latino studies. He is currently writing an institutional history of the Democratic National Committee and partisan coalition politics in the twentieth century. You can follow him on Twitter @Jaime_SanchezJr.

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