Deportation

"[A] meticulous and timely monograph [that] traces the roots of the contemporary deportation regime back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . . . . Hester's insights into the inner workings and geopolitics of deportation make an important contribution to our understanding of the history of immigration policy."—Journal of American History

"Deportation takes seriously the diplomatic requirements of a modern deportation system, and in fact, contextualizes the rise of the American deportation regime within a broader international transition from expulsion to deportation under the modern nation-state systems of documentation and international law. . . . Hester's work could hardly be more timely or important."—Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

"In this engaging and timely book, Hester examines the historical evolution of deportation policy in the US. Through archival research and historical policy analysis, the author considers the power of deportation, the national and international policies created to administer this power, and the changing meaning of deportability...As nations around the world confront the current global migration crisis, readers will surely appreciate the author’s explanations of the long-term causes and consequences of deportation policies. Deportation makes a fine contribution to our understanding of these issues."—Choice

"Through impressive research and detailed analysis, Torrie Hester shows how the early history of deportation law and policy contributed to the world in which we now live. The author successfully shows how the incremental creation of acceptable grounds for deportation reflected an agenda of racialized nation building-an issue that is often raised in critique of the mass deportations of our own times."—Donna Gabaccia, University of Toronto

"Deportation: The Origins of U.S. Policy is a tour-de-force of U.S. policy history, detailing how deportation was born as a lawful practice in the late nineteenth century and tracking its steady expansion into the twentieth century. Moreover, it follows the story beyond U.S. borders to examine the world in which U.S. immigration was made. It is a timely and urgent work."—Kelly Lytle Hernandez, University of California, Los Angeles