Dartmouth launched a new special topic series on borders and immigration—hosted by the Dialogue Project—with a Jan. 13 event focused on the high-profile issue of mass deportations.
With the inauguration of Donald Trump to a second presidential term on Jan. 20, and given his campaign promise to combat illegal immigration, the threat of large-scale expulsion is very real, said an interdisciplinary panel of faculty experts.
“We as panelists take very seriously the words of the commander-in-chief. We are led to believe that mass deportation is upon us within a week,” said moderator Matthew Garcia, the Ralph and Richard Lazarus Professor of History, Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies, and Human Relations at Dartmouth.
The panel, which included University of Illinois Chicago historian Adam Goodman, Brown University anthropologist Ieva Jusionyte, and UCLA sociologist Cecilia Menjívar, discussed what mass deportation means, how it might be carried out, and its potential consequences for U.S. domestic and foreign policy.
The historical context for mass deportation goes back decades, Goodman said. His research has found that more than 60 million people have been deported from the U.S. in the last 140 years. President-elect Trump has stated that he would like to deport the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants living in this country, which includes those who have been legally granted temporary protected status, or TPS.
“It’s unclear what is meant by mass deportation. Who will be targeted? Is it criminals, is it everyone who is in the country undocumented? That has implications for the labor force for all sectors of the U.S. economy,” said Menjívar.
Both documented and undocumented immigrants have provided essential labor during the COVID-19 pandemic and after natural disasters, she said.
“Across some sectors, immigrant labor is the backbone,” Menjívar added.
The largest group of immigrants who want to enter the U.S. are from Mexico, said Jusionyte, citing lack of economic opportunities and insecurity as the dominant factors in their decision to leave their home country. The flow of American guns into Mexico contributes to crime and violence and a subsequent distrust of Mexican law enforcement.
“When you have children, you pack up and leave,” Jusionyte said.
And the reality is that 90% of such drugs as fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamines, and cocaine come into the country through ports of entry, not across deserts or the Rio Grande, Jusionyte added.
In its most recent annual Summary of Crime in the Nation, the FBI reported that there had been a 3% decrease in violent crime and a 2.4% decrease in property crime. Nonetheless, when politicians pin the perception of increased crime rates on undocumented immigrants, it is a “potent political message,” said Jusionyte.
“If you listen to what politicians and some media say you’d think the vast majority of people who want to come to the U.S. are terrorists and criminals,” Goodman said.
In reality, they are interested in finding work and new opportunities, and reuniting with their families and relatives who are already in the country, he added.
Scapegoating immigrants has a long and troubling history, Goodman observed. Although it is not now a widely known episode, the Eisenhower administration unrolled in 1954 a massive deportation that expelled some 300,000 Mexican immigrants, according to the Los Angeles Times. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, efforts to deport undocumented immigrants reintensified, Goodman added.
Calling that period the “dawn of the age of mass expulsion,” Goodman said that the “ramping up of enforcement led to the possibility of apprehension becoming a fact of everyday life for people.”
In fiscal year 2023-2024, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 271,484 immigrants, marking the highest level of deportations since 2014, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
With Republicans holding power in Washington, immigrant rights and legal aid organizations, colleges and universities, and religious institutions are preparing for the mass expulsion of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers that Trump has promised.
Menjívar said that it is also critical to combat the often “vile language” and misleading rhetoric used to describe immigrants, .
“The more these extremely negative narratives are repeated, the more they become normalized and that has an effect on the immigrant population. They become accepted,” Menjívar said.
What are the chances for meaningful reform of an immigration system that the American public, and their representatives in Congress, regard as broken?
Goodman is not encouraged. “We’re seeing a repeat of draconian immigration policies that have shaped the immigration system” since the 1990s, he said. While the Republican party is in lockstep with Trump’s stated policy objectives, the Democratic party is “blowing in the wind.”
In answer to a question about whether Trump could actually effect substantive immigration reform, Jusionyte was dubious. “It’s politically expedient for Republicans to have immigration as a mess,” she said.
The challenge is how to build a functioning migration system, Menjívar said. The fact is that “regardless of how restrictive the border system is, people continue to migrate—with or without authorization.”
Wendy Cruz-Bahena ’24, a Latin American and Caribbean studies major, said it was valuable to listen to the panelists outlining the nuances of immigration policy, and what people might do to protest potentially harsh tactics to deport immigrants in the second Trump administration.
“It’s important to highlight the different forms of resistance at the federal, state, local, and grassroots levels,” she said.
More than 350 people have watched the panel on YouTube or in person. The special topic series on borders and immigration is part of the Dialogue Project and is offered in partnership with the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies and aims to examine the issue through the lens of multiple disciplines.
Other events in the series will include: a Feb. 20-22 conference on Children of Cuarón: Speculative Futures Through Cinematic Fiction and an April 1 panel, Mexico As Border? Power, Violence, and the Future of U.S.-Mexico Relations.
The Dialogue Project will also host a public conversation with Braver Angels senior fellow Mónica Guzmán on Feb. 25. The group is a cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement that aims to bridge partisan divides.
