About the Book
Since 1996, when new, harsher deportation laws went into effect, the United States has deported millions of noncitizens back to their countries of origin. While the rights of immigrants-with or without legal status--as well as the appropriate pathway to legal status are the subject of much debate, hardly any attention has been paid to what actually happens to deportees once they "pass beyond our aid." In fact, we have fostered a new diaspora of deportees, many of
whom are alone and isolated, with strong ties to their former communities in the United States. Daniel Kanstroom, author of the authoritative history of deportation, Deportation
Nation, turns his attention here to the current deportation system of the United States and especially deportation's aftermath: the actual effects on individuals, families, U.S. communities, and the countries that must process and repatriate ever-increasing numbers of U.S. deportees. Few know that once deportees have been expelled to places like Guatemala, Cambodia, Haiti, and El Salvador, many face severe hardship, persecution and, in extreme instances, even
death.Addressing a wide range of political, social, and legal issues, Kanstroom considers whether our deportation system "works" in any meaningful sense. He also asks a number of under-examined legal and
philosophical questions: What is the relationship between the "rule of law" and the border? Where do rights begin and end? Do (or should) deportees ever have a "right to return"? After demonstrating that deportation in the U.S. remains an anachronistic, ad hoc, legally questionable affair, the book concludes with specific reform proposals for a more humane and rational deportation system.
Table of Contents:
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
1. THE GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE DEPORTATION SYSTEM
2. PROBLEMS WITHIN THE DEPORTATION SYSTEM
3. THE EFFECTS OF DEPORTATION ON INDIVIDUALS, FAMILIES,
AND COMMUNITIES
4. THE RULE OF LAW AND ITS BORDERS: DEPORTEES AND
THE SPACE/TIME CONTINUUM
5. RECONCEPTUALIZING THE RULE OF DEPORTATION AND
POST-DEPORTATION LAW
About the Author :
Daniel Kanstroom is Professor of Law at Boston College and author of Deportation Nation: Outsiders in American History.
Review :
"In Aftermath, Dan Kanstroom accomplishes the impossible: he disassembles the labyrinthine snarl of our immigration system in a volume that is both readable and scholarly, accessible and authoritative. Arguing compellingly against "government behavior and consequences we cannot and should not accept," he outlines a sensible, sane way forward. This book is ultimately a volume of hope that appeals to the American spirit of fair play and resoundingly demonstrates
that fairness can be, and is, pragmatic and enlightened self-interest. A must-read."--Ashley Judd, actor and human rights activist
"Daniel Kanstroom has written another remarkable book about the U.S. deportation system. Reading Aftermath is a must for anyone seriously interested in understanding the underbelly of contemporary US border control policy and the urgency of immigration reform."--Jacqueline Bhabha, Director of Research, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University
"In this cogent, well-written and, at times, poignant work of scholarship, Daniel Kanstroom looks unflinchingly at the understudied issue of deportation's aftermath. No one interested in immigration policy will be unmoved by his deft unveiling of the injustices that routinely accompany the US's use of large-scale deportation. More than simply showing its problems, this work provides a convincing account of how the deportation system can be reformed to make it
less of an affront to basic principles of morality and legal fairness."--Matthew J. Gibney, University of Oxford
"Dan Kanstroom is among the most daring and inventive migration scholars writing today. Many studies of immigration law and policy start with the foreign national's arrival in the United States and end with her forced departure. But for nearly all individuals and families, life does not end with removal. Aftermath carries the story forward, rounding out the picture to include previously-overlooked narratives of life for those removed, those left behind, and
the enduring efforts of millions of households to preserve the ties that bind. It is a fair-minded and accessible book that lays bare the gross failings of our current deportation machinery, but also,
in illuminating experience in what Kanstroom terms "the new American diaspora," points to a way out of the terrible box we are now in."--Michael J. Wishnie, William O. Douglas Clinical Professor of Law, Yale Law School
"Here's an underappreciated book about a terribly important part of the nation's justice system. The author calls smartly 'for critical, thorough, humane analysis and reconceptuallization of a deportation system that has become shockingly large, unnecessarily harsh and, in many ways, dysfunctional.' This was a huge legal story in 2012. And it's going to be a huge political story in 2016 as the power of the Hispanic vote becomes more and more
pronounced."--Andrew Cohen, The Atlantic
"Bringing together rigorous legal research and poignant human stories, Aftermath offers a powerful and disturbing exploration of the current US deportation system and its effects in and beyond the United States."--Journal of Refugee Studies
