dagNotes: on deportation as immigration policy
Deportation is a capitalist solution. It’s not about solving problems rather externalizing (often only perceived) costs. Immigrants who cross borders “illegally” into the United States become economic values. It’s a terrible transformation and not simply unfortunate because it’s intended.
Deportation as immigration policy is a clear form of externalization—in other words, a policy that intends to put something outside (a border) with its warrants almost entirely having to do with transferring cost. Externalization, in this manner, is a form of repression. It’s most certainly a projection. And it’s an explicit refusal to admit immigration policy is an internal affair. Deportation justifies, encourages—constructs its form—a collective projection of anxiety, instability, poor health, and general fear of strangers onto individuals who, no matter who they are, never have earned such devastating value. Deportation is always a known many against a strange one.
The reform necessary must be revolutionary, as revolutionary as the victories workers won in the late 19th through mid-20th Centuries that we all continue to benefit from today.
