{"id":6443,"date":"2018-02-01T00:45:17","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T05:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=6443"},"modified":"2018-02-01T00:46:24","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T05:46:24","slug":"deportees-in-mexico-tell-of-disrupted-lives-families-and-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=6443","title":{"rendered":"Deportees in Mexico Tell of Disrupted Lives, Families and Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A woman in Mexico who was deported in 2010 and separated from her two children in the United States. REUTERS\/Jorge Duenes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ray was born in Mexico and moved to the United States with family members at age 10.<\/p>\n

He told me in an interview in 2014, \u201cI\u2019m just a regular American like everyone else.\u201d In middle school, Ray (a pseudonym to protect his identity) learned the Declaration of Independence and memorized all the presidents in order. His first job was replastering swimming pools in Phoenix, Arizona. Ray had a son, who was accepted to officer candidate school to attempt to earn the title of U.S. Marine.<\/p>\n

After 29 years in the United States \u2013 attending school, working and raising a family \u2013 Ray was deported to Mexico.<\/p>\n

\n
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A man deported in 2013 sits in front of his house in Nogales, Mexico. He lived in the United States for 36 years. Tobin Hansen, CC BY-SA<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

As an anthropologist, I set out to understand how people like Ray become socially entwined in U.S. communities. I spent 18 months researching<\/a> and living with deported adults in northern Mexico. I interviewed 56 deported adults who had arrived to the United States before age 13, years or even decades ago.<\/p>\n

In English, marked by East Coast pluck, Southern lilt or Southwest flatness, they told me of the ties that bind<\/a> them to their U.S. home communities. Their experiences raise important questions about the human costs of deportation that Washington lawmakers must consider as they debate immigration policy \u2013 particularly as it affects so-called Dreamers, noncitizens who have lived most of their lives in the United States.<\/p>\n

Belonging and alienation<\/strong><\/p>\n

The people I interviewed articulated a deep sense of national belonging in the United States. Alfonso (pseudonym) was deported in 2013 after living for 43 years in Tucson, Arizona, since the age of 2. He told me, \u201cThe U.S. is everything for me. It\u2019s everything I feel, everything I\u2019ve ever done. It\u2019s who I am. You grow up up there and that\u2019s your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also spoke of lives that, before deportation, had been enmeshed in the everyday activities, shared understandings, social networks, ways of communicating and values of their local communities. Divorced from home, deportees often felt incomplete, shut out or shut down.<\/p>\n

Paco (pseudonym) was born in Mexico in 1971, taken to Phoenix, Arizona, with family at 6 months old, and deported in 2013. He said, \u201cIt\u2019s the little things that matter, you know: birthday parties, a quince\u00f1era, graduations. Things happen up there and it\u2019s just once, and you don\u2019t get that time back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deportees also experience wrenching social, psychological and economic stress<\/a> and alienation after expulsion. They enter unfamiliar worlds<\/a> when released from U.S. government custody, into northern Mexico border cities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paco expressed his disorientation in Mexico: \u201cFor me it\u2019s like they dropped me off in Africa \u2026 In a place I don\u2019t know, where I have nothing. I don\u2019t know nobody [and it\u2019s] not my home. I have no ties to nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n

After deportation, life\u2019s more meaningful projects became daunting \u2013 turning a living space into a home, determining a vocation, attending school<\/a>, connecting deeply with others, or imagining a future. Dustin (pseudonym), a 38-year-old deportee put it simply: \u201cI\u2019ve had enough with this down here. I just can\u2019t do it. It\u2019s just not like up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be sure, a mix of family support, academic or job skills, hard work, ingenuity and sheer grit, allowed some returnees to reconfigure their lives. In rare cases, some described achieving fulfillment and happiness. But they represent a narrow minority.<\/p>\n

Most speak of \u201cgetting by\u201d or \u201cmaking it.\u201d Rabbit (pseudonym), a 22-year-old deportee said, \u201cDepression hit me pretty hard.\u201d Rabbit describes feelings of dispossession and dejection and an inability to live a \u201cnormal life.\u201d In characterizing the unrelenting pressure his feels, he said that he \u201clived in some of the hardest places [in Phoenix], and they didn\u2019t get me. It\u2019s just, Mexico\u2019s got a grip on me now, and won\u2019t let go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fixing immigration policy<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s announcement on Sept. 5, 2017 that it was rescinding<\/a> Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals consigned to Congress the responsibility of action on immigration legislation. Most of those I interviewed were given a lifetime ban from legally reentering the United States. They have little hope for returning home. But since DACA\u2019s cancellation, DACA recipients still in the United States risk losing their protection from deportation. Deportees\u2019 sense of belonging in the United States helps illuminate the potential ramifications of legislative inaction.<\/p>\n

\"TheLawmakers, citizen and media discourse often focus immigration debates on noncitizens\u2019 potential economic and social benefits to the United States. Nevertheless, the U.S. government also claims to ground policy decisions in principles of basic human well-being. In finding a way forward, legislators should consider the experiences of the untold deportees who, like Ray, have had their lives disrupted by dislocation from home.<\/p>\n

Tobin Hansen<\/a>, Ph.D. candidate in anthropology, University of Oregon<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ray was born in Mexico and moved to the United States with family members at age 10. He told me in an interview in 2014, \u201cI\u2019m just a regular American like everyone else.\u201d In middle school, Ray (a pseudonym to protect his identity) learned the Declaration of Independence and memorized all the presidents in order.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":7211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/202697\/original\/file-20180121-110084-tjerj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[189],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-borders-commerce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6443"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6446,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6443\/revisions\/6446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}