recording<\/a> of the briefing is available to watch on C-SPAN.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Chronology<\/h4>\n
1639<\/strong> \u2013 Colonial Massachusetts law authorized towns to remove poor people who had no legal settlement in the town.<\/p>\n1683<\/strong> \u2013 Colonial New York law authorized local officials to send transient beggars to \u201cthe country from whence they came.\u201d<\/p>\n1794<\/strong> \u2013 Massachusetts state law allowed for the expulsion of any pauper without legal settlement in the state to \u201cany other State, or to any place beyond [the] sea where he belongs.\u201d<\/p>\n1798<\/strong> \u2013 The Alien Act authorized the president to arrest and deport foreign nationals whom he deemed dangerous to the peace and security of the United States.<\/p>\n1850<\/strong> \u2013 Massachusetts immigration officials were authorized to deport foreign paupers from the United States.<\/p>\n1875<\/strong> \u2013 The US Supreme Court declared state passenger laws in New York, Louisiana, and California unconstitutional.<\/p>\n1882<\/strong> \u2013 The Chinese Restriction Act excluded Chinese laborers, with a provision for the deportation of Chinese who unlawfully entered the United States.<\/p>\n1882<\/strong> \u2013 The Immigration Act excluded the poor, people with mental illness, and criminals.<\/p>\n1891<\/strong> \u2013 The Immigration Act added people likely to become public charges, people with contagious diseases, polygamists, contract workers, and assisted immigrants to the excludable class. The act also provided for the deportation of foreign nationals found to have entered the United States unlawfully within a year after arrival.<\/p>\n1892<\/strong> \u2013 The Geary Act required Chinese in the US to obtain a Certificate of Residence. Those who failed to do so would become deportable.<\/p>\n1924<\/strong> \u2013 The Immigration Act introduced the national origins quota system, starting quantitative immigration restriction. It also introduced a consular control system and suspended virtually all Asian immigration.<\/p>\n1930s (Great Depression)<\/strong> \u2013 One of the most extensive mass expulsion campaigns in US history, on the premise that Mexican migrants and US-born Mexican Americans were responsible for significant aspects of the nation\u2019s economic miseries. By the late 1930s, 2 million people had been expelled to Mexico; 60% are estimated to have been US citizens.<\/p>\n1942\u201364<\/strong> \u2013 The Bracero Program, a guest worker program allowing temporary labor from Mexico, issued over 4.5 million contracts in 22 years. The program led to increased unsanctioned border crossings. More people wanted to join than there were available slots, leading to undocumented migration. Returning Braceros encouraged others to migrate.<\/p>\n1954<\/strong> \u2013 The Immigration and Naturalization Service launched Operation Wetback, a paramilitary campaign to expel Mexican migrants. Over 1 million people were apprehended; many families were separated by deportation. Operation Wetback reduced unauthorized crossings; the government replaced those workers\u2014because of employer demands\u2014with legal guest workers through the Bracero Program.<\/p>\n1964<\/strong> \u2013 Congress ended the Bracero Program. Mexican workers accustomed to US employment continued migrating\u2014now without authorization.<\/p>\n1965<\/strong> \u2013 The Immigration and Nationality Act (also known as the Hart-Celler Act)<\/p>\n\n- Replaced the race- and nationality-based quota system that had been in place since 1924 with numerical quotas on migration from all countries, including on independent countries in the Americas for the first time.<\/li>\n
- Created a preference system that focused on immigrants\u2019 skills and family relations with citizens or US residents and exempted immediate relatives of US citizens from the quota.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
1980<\/strong> \u2013 The Refugee Act<\/p>\n\n- Provided a permanent and systematic procedure for the admission of refugees of special humanitarian concern to the US.<\/li>\n
- Incorporated the UN Refugee Convention definition of a refugee into US law.<\/li>\n
- Mandated the establishment of procedures whereby a person at the border or in the US, regardless of status, could seek asylum.<\/li>\n
- Prohibited return of any asylum seeker to a country where their life or liberty would be threatened.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
1980s<\/strong> \u2013 Thousands of Central Americans fled to the US due to violence and poverty. US immigration officials refused to hear or summarily denied asylum claims from Salvadorans and Guatemalans, prompting the growth of the Sanctuary Movement and leading to a federal court settlement requiring new hearings for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers. The US also pressured Mexico to block migrants before they reached the US border. As a result, Mexico deported more Central Americans than the US.<\/p>\n1986<\/strong> \u2013 The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)<\/p>\n\n- Introduced border fortification and increased border enforcement to deter unauthorized migration. Instead of inhibiting migration, the policy changed behavior, as migrants, fearing the risks of crossing multiple times, brought their families and settled permanently. The overall unauthorized migrant population living in the United States increased.<\/li>\n
- Granted a pathway to permanent residency to unauthorized immigrants who had lived in the US since 1982 or worked in certain agricultural jobs.<\/li>\n
- Imposed sanctions on employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
1990<\/strong> \u2013 The Immigration Act<\/p>\n\n- Revised the preference categories for immigration visas (including limiting visas for low-skilled workers) and created new diversity and specialty immigrant visas and temporary visas.<\/li>\n
- Authorized the attorney general to grant \u201ctemporary protected status\u201d to nationals of countries suffering from armed conflicts, natural disasters, or \u201cother extraordinary and temporary conditions.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
1996<\/strong> \u2013 The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA)<\/p>\n\n- Added penalties for immigrants who commit crimes in the United States or undocumented immigrants who stay in the US for statutorily defined periods of time.<\/li>\n
- Created an expedited removal process, mandating detention and fast-track removal without immigration court proceedings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
2004\u201318<\/strong> \u2013 Mexico deported 1.7 million Central Americans; the US deported 1.1 million Central Americans.<\/p>\n2006<\/strong> \u2013 The Secure Fences Act mandated that the Secretary of Homeland Security act quickly to achieve operational control over US international land and maritime borders, including an expansion of existing walls, fences, and surveillance.<\/p>\n2008<\/strong> \u2013 The Trafficking Victims Protection Act created visas for victims of trafficking and special screenings for unaccompanied children. Unaccompanied children from noncontiguous territories are referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement.<\/p>\n2010<\/strong> \u2013 Los Zetas cartel massacred 72 Central American migrants who were unable to pay the cartel. Cartel violence against Central American migrants has since escalated.<\/p>\n2012<\/strong> \u2013 The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive action enabled young adults (ages 15 to 30) brought to the US illegally as children to apply for temporary deportation relief and a two-year work permit.<\/p>\n2015<\/strong> \u2013 Decision in Flores v. Johnson set detention conditions for families and limited it to 20 days.<\/p>\n2020<\/strong> \u2013 Section 265 of US Code Title 42 was invoked to prohibit entry and authorize expulsion of border crossers in the name of preventing the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\nThe Foundations of US Deportation Policy<\/h4>\n\n- Until the 1870s, immigration to the United States was administered largely by state governments. The federal government began regulating immigration during the 1870s and 1880s.<\/li>\n
- Policies for removing migrants developed in tandem with policies for restricting migrants\u2019 admission. Policies of deportation and border control were intertwined.<\/li>\n
- The purposes and targets of deportation changed over time. Some of the earliest deportation laws focused on poor people. But by the early 20th century, the category of deportable people was expanded. Diverse groups of migrants could be expelled not only on economic grounds but also on medical, political, and moral grounds.<\/li>\n
- The scope and impact of early deportation policy were limited. Before 1924, there were time limits on the applicability of deportation. The overwhelming majority of European immigrants were admitted and relatively few were deported.<\/li>\n
- Racism was and remained a major driving force in the development of federal deportation policy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/h4>\nDeportation in the 1930s\u201380s<\/h4>\n\n- Deportations during this period affected both migrants and American citizens, often violating the rights of legal residents and citizens. They tore families apart, separating citizen children from their parents.<\/li>\n
- Presented as measures to protect jobs and public safety, deportations generally failed to improve economic stability or public safety. They sometimes worsened security concerns by strengthening criminal organizations.<\/li>\n
- US immigration laws and policies shaped unauthorized migration. Enforcement efforts often had unintended consequences. Policies\u2014including deportation policies\u2014fueled the very migration patterns they aimed to curb.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Deportation since 1980<\/h4>\n
Overall trends:<\/p>\n