Deportation from the United States is the process of expelling foreigners. Deportation distinguishes between two primary models: "extended border control", which involves expelling foreigners for violations related to their admission, and "post-entry social control", which targets individuals for conduct, such as criminal activity, that occurs after admission to the country. Between 1920 and 2018, the U.S. expelled nearly 57 million people, more than any other country in the world, and more than it allowed to immigrate legally.
Deportation has historically used three primary mechanisms of expulsion: formal deportation (removals), voluntary departure, and self-deportation. Formal deportations, which carry legal penalties for reentry, account for a minority of expulsions. The vast majority have occurred through voluntary departure, an administrative process in which law enforcement coerces or incentivizes apprehended individuals into leaving the country. Self-deportation occurs when migrants leave on their own accord, although this is often influenced by fear, intimidation, and law enforcement activity that makes it difficult to remain.
Federal deportation policy developed from early colonial practices, the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, and the late 19th-century anti-Chinese movement. While deportation historically implicated largely Chinese and European persons, since the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Mexicans have accounted for about 90 percent of all deportees. The deportation process has been shaped by a complex interplay of bureaucratic imperatives, profit motives, ethnic prejudice, and political calculations, with impacts for individuals, families, and communities.
History Colonial Era to mid 19th century policies The modern U.S. deportation system was built upon a long history of exclusion and expulsion that predates the federal government. English colonial authorities in North America adapted practices from the British, such as laws for the transportation of convicts and the "warning out" systems used to control the movement of the poor. The first major deportation of European settlers occurred in the 1750s, when the British expelled some 8,000 Acadians from what is now Nova Scotia.
After independence, the first federal law authorizing the expulsion of foreigners was the Alien Friends Act of 1798. The law gave the president discretionary power to deport any foreigner he deemed "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States". Though never formally enforced, the Act prompted a fierce debate over federal power, states' rights, and the constitutional protections afforded to foreigners, with figures like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison arguing that it was unconstitutional. The Alien Friends Act expired in 1800, but was followed by the Alien Enemies Act, which affords the President "very great discretionary powers"Brown v. United States, 12 U.S. 110, at 126 (1814) to expel foreigners and which has "remained the law of the land, virtually unchanged since 1798."Ludecke v. Watkins, 335 U.S. 160, at 162 (1948)
Chinese exclusion and late 19th century policies State governments had the authority to banish people, a power they used to remove groups like Irish Catholics and paupers. This system of local control began to change with the rise of the anti-Chinese movement.
Chinese migrants first arrived in large numbers during the California Gold Rush of the 1850s, providing labor for railroads, mines, and other industries in the American West. By 1880, over 105,000 Chinese people lived in the United States. Many white Americans, particularly in California, however, viewed the growing Chinese population as an existential threat, a "heathen" and "uncivilized" race that was incapable of assimilation. In response to sustained political pressure from nativist groups like the Workingmen's Party of California, Congress passed the Page Act of 1875, which barred the admission of anyone from Asia who was involved in forced labor or prostitution and anyone from anywhere in the world who was convicted of a criminal offense in their country of origin.
Between 1885 and 1886, at least 168 communities in the American West carried out campaigns to drive out their Chinese residents. In Truckee, California, community leaders including newspaper editor Charles Fayette McGlashan, used boycotts of anyone who employed or patronized Chinese residents, combined with the use of intimidation, threats, and violence, to drive out the town's Chinese population. These campaigns coerced an estimated 15,000 or more Chinese people out of communities or the country.
In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred the admission of Chinese laborers for ten years. In addition, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1882, which introduced a head tax to be collected from each arriving immigrant and also barred from admission to the United States, persons with disabilities and those deemed a public charge. The Immigration Act of 1882 was subsequently challenged in the Head Money Cases (1884), where a Dutch shipping company argued that the law was beyond federal power and in conflict with then-existing United States treaty obligations; ultimately, the Supreme Court upheld the law, concluding Congress had the power to impose immigration-related fees and to abrogate prior treaties. Building on this judicial acceptance of treaty abrogation in matters of immigration and foreign affairs, Congress passed the Scott Act of 1888, which abrogated the Burlingame Treaty of 1868 and barred the re-entry of Chinese laborers previously admitted under the Chinese Exclusion Act, voiding the over 20,000 outstanding re-entry permits which had been issued to Chinese laborers under 1884 amendments to the Chinese Exclusion Act. In Chae Chan Ping v. United States (1889), the Supreme Court upheld the Scott Act of 1888. In 1892, Congress passed the Geary Act, which extended the Chinese Exclusion Act for ten years and required Chinese persons to obtain residency permits, with deportation for non-registration. Chinese immigrants in the United States organized protests and brought legal challenges. In Fong Yue Ting v. United States (1893), which was a challenge to the Geary Act, the Supreme Court held that deportation is a civil procedure, which limited procedural protections for deportees.
Federal bureaucracy and early expulsions (1891–1924)
The Immigration Act of 1891 furthered the federalization of deportation by creating a new superintendent of immigration within the Department of the Treasury. The law expanded the category of inadmissible or removable foreigners to include people with contagious diseases and polygamists. The act also provided for the administrative finality of admissibility decisions by immigration officials, a provision which was upheld a year later in Nishimura Ekiu v. United States (1892). Over the next two decades, the grounds for inadmissibility or deportation would expand beyond ethnic or economic grounds to further encompass ideological and other social grounds. Following the assassination of President McKinley by Polish-American anarchist Leon Czolgosz, Congress passed and President Theodore Roosevelt signed, the Anarchist Exclusion Act of 1903. In United States ex rel. Turner v. Williams (1904), the Supreme Court upheld this law against a challenge that had been brought by British anarchist John Turner, with Chief Justice Fuller's citing "self-preservation" as the reason that the Anarchist Exclusion Act was sustained. The Immigration Act of 1917 expanded the grounds for inadmissibility to include geographic grounds by establishing a "barred zone" that encompassed much of Asia.
During this period, formal deportation was a cumbersome and expensive process. This led immigration officials to develop what is now termed voluntary departure, a process where a foreigner agrees to waive participation in the deportation process and instead departs the United States on their own accord. Though not officially tracked by the government until 1927, archival records show that officials relied on voluntary departure as early as 1907. It proved an expeditious and cost-effective tool, particularly along the southern border, where it was easier to turn foreigners around, heading back to Mexico, than it was for the government to transport them. Between 1918 and 1921, as immigration from Mexico increased, so did voluntary departures During this period, federal authorities carried out nearly 20,000 voluntary departures of Mexicans, more than three times the number of formal deportations of all other nationalities combined. By the late 1910s, the typical deportee was a Mexican who had entered the country without inspection.
Johnson-Reed Era (1924–1965) The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson-Reed Act, altered the landscape of U.S. immigration and deportation. The act established the national origins quota formula that restricted immigration from Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Asia, with exception of the Philippines, which was under U.S. control at that time, but placed no numerical limits on immigration from the Americas. Before 1924, immigration restrictions were primarily qualitative in nature, with restrictions on prostitutes and convicts (Page Act of 1875), public charges (Immigration Act of 1882), Chinese persons (Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and follow-up legislation), anarchists (Anarchist Exclusion Act of 1903), and so on. The 1924 Act, with its quantitative restrictions, expanded the category of illegal immigration to larger groups of people, who became subject to deportation by overstaying or entering without a quota visa. This new legal framework, combined with increased enforcement along the U.S.–Mexico border and the establishment of the U.S. Border Patrol, laid the groundwork for deportation campaigns the following decades.
Great Depression and repatriation
The Great Depression led to a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, with widespread scapegoating of Mexicans for economic woes. In response, federal, state, and local officials launched large-scale self-deportation campaigns, known as the Mexican Repatriation, to pressure Mexicans and Mexican Americans to leave the country. William N. Doak, the Secretary of Labor under President Herbert Hoover, orchestrated a national campaign, using immigration raids on homes, workplaces, and public spaces to create a "gladiatorial spectacle" of "alien hunting". In Los Angeles, officials announced raids in major English- and Spanish-language newspapers to "scare many thousand alien deportables" into leaving. These tactics, which relied on rumors, intimidation, and police cooperation, were effective. Between 1929 and 1939, as many as half a million Mexicans and Mexican Americans were repatriated, with a majority leaving through self-deportation or voluntary departure.
Bracero Program and Operation Wetback After World War II, the demand for cheap agricultural labor led to the creation of the Bracero Program (1942–1964), a series of binational agreements that brought millions of Mexican men to the United States as temporary guest workers. The program, however, existed alongside and contributed to a rise in illegal immigration, creating what became known as the "wetback crisis" in the early 1950s. In 1954, the Eisenhower administration launched Operation Wetback, a military-style campaign by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) designed to apprehend and expel Mexicans. Led by General Joseph M. Swing, the operation relied on a combination of raids, publicity campaigns, and large-scale expulsions to create a climate of fear.