Confronting the Deportation Machine

 
 
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On Tuesday August 4thProfessor Adam Goodman (EPIIC ‘00) discussed his new book, The Deportation Machine: America's Long History of Expelling Immigrants, and contemporary U.S. Trump Administration policies, with Diane Rish (EPIIC ‘05), Associate Director for Government Relations of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Though the iniquities of our immigration system have rarely been as stark as in the present moment, they are preceded by 140 years of unjust expulsion policies. The Deportation Machine is a meticulous, passionate, and devastating rendering of that history, unveiling the underlying fear, economic realities, and human costs. It delivers a painstaking understanding of the systemic mechanisms of use-of-force, militarized borders, mass incarceration, and consistent violations of due process.t

The question at the core of these issues has immense importance today: is the United States to be a nation of immigrants - multiracial, multicultural, and multilingual - or a nation of anti-migrant sentiment, racial prejudice, and xenophobia? Public involvement and action are urgently needed to tackle that question, and to begin confronting the past that has gotten us here.

The event entailed an engaging discussion of The Deportation Machine with Adam, and then turned to ways in which individuals can help challenge the machine by advocating for those who are currently detained and calling for a more humane and just treatment of immigrants in our communities.