Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: April 27, 2021 at 5:20:34 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-FedHist]: Hartmann on Goodman, 'The Deportation > Machine: America's Long History of Expelling Immigrants' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Adam Goodman. The Deportation Machine: America's Long History of > Expelling Immigrants. Politics and Society in Modern America Series. > Princeton Princeton University Press, 2020. Illustrations. 352 pp. > $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-18215-5. > > Reviewed by Susan M. Hartmann (The Ohio State University) > Published on H-FedHist (April, 2021) > Commissioned by Caryn E. Neumann > > During the last century, nearly fifty-two million immigrants gained > legal status in the United States, yet there have been an even > greater number of deportations--more than fifty-six million (some of > these representing repeat occurrences for the same individual). Alan > Goodman's superb history explores the origins of this mass expulsion, > the official and nonofficial processes of removal, its persistence no > matter which political party controlled the government, the > businesses that profited from it, the suffering it brought to > deportees and their loved ones, and the resistance to it. Based on > broad and deep research into official sources in the United States > and Mexico--original home to 90 percent of the deportees--as well as > local records, newspapers, and oral histories, _The Deportation > Machine_ unearths policies and practices that have received scant > attention and contributes immeasurably to our understanding of the > dark side of immigration policy. > > Goodman places deportations into three categories: formal expulsion > usually after some kind of court procedure; "voluntary departure" > through which officials persuade immigrants to leave without > incurring legal charges and without access to due process; and > "self-deportation," where individuals choose to leave, usually in > terror of experiencing something worse. He focuses on the so-called > voluntary departures, because they constituted by far the most > typical form of expulsion, and because self-deportations are > impossible to quantify. Beginning with the late nineteenth-century > deployment of all three methods against Chinese immigrants, he traces > the development of new laws and procedures that created a federal > immigration bureaucracy and that increasingly concentrated on Mexican > migrants. > > Policy and procedures were meant both to expel those already in the > United States and to deter further immigration. Publicity campaigns > accompanied raids on workplaces and neighborhoods in an effort to > encourage voluntary departures, the cheapest and most efficient way > to deport, while at the same time terrorizing even legal residents. > Most seizures of unauthorized immigrants took place at the border, > but raids on immigrant communities occurred throughout the country, > contributing to an enormous increase in voluntary departures in the > decades between 1965 and 1985. > > Goodman also reveals the role of bus companies, airlines, and other > private businesses that profited from carrying deportees. In a > detailed examination of a boatlift that transported tens of thousands > of Mexicans from Port Isabel, Texas, to Veracruz, Mexico, from 1954 > to 1956, he describes the human suffering--including deaths--caused > by harsh conditions on the ships, justified by regarding the > passengers as less than human. The Mexican government cooperated with > the boatlift, which was contracted to Mexican carriers, until forced > to terminate it after exposure of the cruelty and public outcries. > > The book also reveals shifting and sometimes surprising positions on > immigration policy. In the 1950s, the American GI Forum, established > to advance the rights of Mexican American veterans, supported the > expulsion of unauthorized Mexicans through Operation Wetback, while > cotton-producing communities in south Texas protested the loss of > workers. Labor unions were complicit in campaigns to get rid of > Chinese immigrants in the late nineteenth century, but in the 1970s a > number of them joined a movement that won important rights for people > detained on immigration charges. As the US government increasingly > outsourced immigration control in the 1980s and beyond, the Mexican > government compromised its responsibility for protecting its > nationals and cooperated in deterring Central American migrants. > > Goodman's epilogue recites the harsh policies of the Trump > administration, whose roots readers will recognize in the century of > expulsions that he has so meticulously laid out. While students and > scholars of immigration history will find _The Deportation Machine > _an indispensable and eminently readable source, it also conveys > essential knowledge for those seeking a more just and humane approach > to those seeking shelter in the United States. > > Citation: Susan M. Hartmann. Review of Goodman, Adam, _The > Deportation Machine: America's Long History of Expelling Immigrants_. > H-FedHist, H-Net Reviews. April, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56182 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8269): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8269 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/82427368/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
