Book Review: American presidents, deportations, and human rights violations: From carter to Trump

• Date: 01 December 2020
• Author: Mercedes Valadez
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567720946417
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

of the legal aspects of immigration and the parallels between the immigration and criminal

justice systems. Graduate students and scholars with a preliminary knowledge of immigration

law and immigration courts would especially benefit from the intersectionality between dis-

ciplines and develop an understanding of the complexity of immigration reform within our

current structure.

ORCID iD

Krystlelynn Caraballo https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2477-4898

Notes

1. Stumpf (2006) defines crimmigration as the “criminalization of immigration law. The merger of the two

areas in both substance and procedure has created parall el systems in which immigration law and the

criminal justice system are merely nominally separate” (p. 376).

2. Beyond Deportation was originally published in 2015 and the paperback was released in 2017. The book

leaves off with the events as of late 2014, when it was preparing for production. Wadhia follows up with

more recent events in her book Banned: Immigration Enforcement in the Time of Trump (NYU Press), which

was released September 2019. Recommendations outlined may have changed during this time.

References

Stumpf, J. P. (2006). The crimmigration crisis: Immigrants, crime, and sovereign power. American University

Law Review,56, 367–419.

Ong Hing, B. (2018).

American presidents, deportations, and human rights violations: From carter to Trump. Cambridge University Press.

Xi, 355 pp. $21.45, ISBN: 978-1108459211.

Reviewed by: Mercedes Valadez , California State University, Sacramento, CA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567720946417

Ong Hing provides a powerful account of the abuse and injustice that has come to define the current

immigration system in the United States. This book explores the past 4 decades of immigration

policies and practices from President Carter to Trump. Not only does the author address the financial

cost “in terms of billions of dollars spent on enforcement, but also in terms of the cost to our basic

humanity” (p. 2). In the most poignant parts of the text, Ong Hing gives migrants a voice. They share

their experiences in detainment and shed light on the circumstances that forced them to migrate. This

is a timely piece that provides a historical context to one of the most polarizing topics in politics

today—immigration. Readers will gain a better understanding of how the immigration system has

changed overtime, the policies and practices that have served expand deportations, and allow human

rights violations.

The book begins with an introduction to statistics and trends related to formal removal proceed-

ings under the Clinton, George W. Bush, and the Obama administrations. Ong Hing explains the

central focus of the book. That is, understanding removal proceedings under the Obama adminis-

tration, particularly those of women and children attempting to escape violence in Central American.

Ong Hing successfully makes the case that the Obama era immigration enforcement policies have

been some of the most devastating to migrants and how Obama’s misguided policies have opened

the doors to additional mishandlings and abuse under the Trump administration.

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