Deportation: The Origins of U.S. Policy

252 Pages·2017·6.135 MB·English

by  Torrie Hester

DEPORTATION
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DEPORTATION
THE ORIGINS OF U.S. POLICY
TORRIE HESTER
university of p ennsylvania press
philadelphia
Copyright(cid:2)2017UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Allrightsreserved.
Exceptforbriefquotationsusedforpurposesofrevieworscholarlycitation,
noneofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformbyanymeans
withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher.
Publishedby
UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Philadelphia,Pennsylvania19104-4112
www.upenn.edu/pennpress
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
onacid-freepaper
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
ACataloging-in-PublicationrecordisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress
ISBN978-0-8122-4916-3
Contents
ListofAbbreviations vii
Introduction 1
Chapter1.CreatingU.S.DeportationPolicy 7
Chapter2.TheInternationalRegime 35
Chapter3.DeportationandCitizenshipStatus 61
Chapter4.FromProtectiontoPunishment 82
Chapter5.TheLimitsofDeportationPower 112
Chapter6.FromRacialtoEconomicGrounds 141
Conclusion 170
Notes 183
Index 231
Acknowledgments 241
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Abbreviations
AR-CGI U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Immigration, Annual
ReportoftheCommissionerGeneralofImmigration(Washing-
ton,D.C.:GovernmentPrintingOffice,1894–1924).
CAN Immigration Branch, RG 76, National Archives of Canada,
Ottawa,Ontario.
CCF-AZ Criminal Case Files, 1869–1911, Arizona Territorial Court,
Third Judicial District, Records of the District Courts of the
United States, RG 21, National Archives, Pacific Region,
LagunaNiguel,Calif.
CCF-CA CriminalCaseFiles,1907–1929,SouthernDistrictofCalifornia,
Southern Division (Los Angeles), Records of the District
CourtsoftheUnitedStates,RG21,NationalArchives,Pacific
Region,LagunaNiguel,Calif.
ChEx-AZ Chinese Exclusion Case Files, 1897–1911, Arizona Territorial
Court, Fourteenth Judicial District, Records of the District
CourtsoftheUnitedStates,RG21,NationalArchives,Pacific
Region,LagunaNiguel,Calif.
DF Central Decimal File Subjects 1910–1949, Central Files 1910–
January 1963, U.S. Department of State Records, RG 59,
NationalArchives,CollegePark,Md.
DS DiplomaticCorrespondence,CentralFilesoftheDepartmentof
State, 1778–1963, RG 59, National Archives, College Park,
Md.
FRUS U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1886–1924).
FSP RecordsoftheForeignServicePostsoftheDepartmentofState,
State Department and Foreign Affairs Records, RG 84,
NationalArchives,CollegePark,Md.
viii Abbreviations
ILR U.S.DepartmentofLabor,BureauofImmigration,Immigration
Laws and Rules (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Print-
ingOffice,1907–1924).
INS RecordsoftheImmigrationandNaturalizationService,RG85,
NationalArchives,Washington,D.C.
USC-AZ U.S.CommissionersDocketsandMinutes,1891–1912,Arizona
Territorial Court, Third Judicial District, Records of District
CourtsoftheUnitedStates,RG21,NationalArchives,Pacific
Region,LagunaNiguel,Calif.
USSCRB U.S.SupremeCourtRecords&BriefsonMicrofiche(Bethesda,
Md.:CongressionalInformationService,1984–present).
Introduction
Inthe latenineteenthand earlytwentiethcenturies,U.S.officialscreateda
national deportation policy. They were not alone in this endeavor. In the
same period, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil,
Britain,andGermany,amongothers,alsoeitherrevisedexistingimmigrant
removal policies or developed new ones.1 Their efforts made deportation
into an internationally recognized form of removal, which was unique in
law, scope, motivation, and significance. The act of deporting individuals
thereafter became one of the most far-reaching powers exercised by the
United States government. Between 1892, when the U.S. government first
started to establish its federal deportation policy, and 2015, the United
States deported more than fifty million immigrants, almost 95 percent of
themsince1970.2
Thisbookexaminesthepowerofdeportation,thenationalandinterna-
tionalpoliciescreatedtoadministerthispower,andthechangingmeaning
of deportability—the status of being deportable—during the first, forma-
tivedecadesofthedeportationregime.3
Before1882,theU.S.governmenthadneverformallydeportedanyone.
That year, in the first of a series of laws, Congress created the power to
deportChineseworkers.By1888,policymakershadenhancedtheirpower
to deport all immigrants, and, over the next thirty years, the government
expanded restrictions so that, by 1917, deportation provisions variously
targetedChineseworkers, anarchists,suspectedprostitutes,publiccharges,
andcontractlaborers,tomentiononlyafewofthecategories.Immigration
agents carrying out new federal policy deported several hundred or, at the
most, a few thousandpeople eachyear.They deportedfewerpeople inthe
first forty years of carrying out deportations than immigration authorities
wouldinanysingleyearafter1970.
Insomeways,then,thisbookcoversatimewhenimmigrationauthori-
ties administered deportation policy quite differently than they would a
century later. Nevertheless, the grounds for deportation, the enforcement