It does happen here
Our long history of rounding people up and kicking them out

Mass deportation. It's an Orwellian phrase we associate with the Holocaust or the Armenian genocide. Sending armed troops to pull millions of people, including babies and seniors, from their homes, forcing them into squalid camps, and then transferring them to a land where they have nothing — it sounds like something only a crazed dictator would do. Not a democratic country, certainly not my own country. But in fact, the U.S. has done it multiple times, and not just during wartime. The Trail of Tears, when President Andrew Jackson signed the 1830 Indian Removal Act to expel tens of thousands of Native Americans from their land. During the Depression, when the U.S. kicked out up to 1.8 million people of Mexican descent, half of them U.S. citizens, to preserve jobs for whites. And Operation Wetback (yes, really), when President Dwight D. Eisenhower used the Border Patrol to truck over a million Mexican laborers back to Mexico. All of these actions were popular at the time, and all were seen in retrospect as shameful chapters in U.S. history.
Yet here we are again. Studies show that deporting immigrants doesn't help the economy; it hurts it. But Donald Trump says that if he's elected president, he will expel up to 20 million people, a figure far higher than the 11 million undocumented immigrants believed to be in the U.S. now. At the Republican convention, attendees carried signs blaring "Mass Deportation Now" and chanted "Send them back!" In a June poll, 6 in 10 voters said they supported the idea, including a third of Democrats, while just under half supported mass detention centers where those arrested (some of them doubtless citizens) would be sent for processing. Do these Americans understand how traumatic such an upheaval would be? The spectacle of troops going door to door, of families being rounded up, would be heart-wrenching. The blatant racism of the endeavor — it's not Norwegians over-staying visas who would be targeted — would rip this nation apart. Mass deportation is not un-American. But it should be.
This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Susan Caskie is The Week's international editor and was a member of the team that launched The Week's U.S. print edition. She has worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Transitions magazine, and UN Wire, and reads a bunch of languages.
-
September 14 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include RFK Jr on the hook, the destruction of discourse, and more
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-war
Talking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
A tour of Sri Lanka’s beautiful north
The Week Recommends ‘Less frenetic’ than the south, this region is full of beautiful wildlife, historical sites and resorts
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-war
Talking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
Koreans detained in US Hyundai raid return home
Speed Read Over 300 Koreans were detained at the plant last week
-
Calls for both calm and consequences follow Kirk killing
TALKING POINTS The suspected assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk has some public figures pleading for restraint, while others agitate for violent reprisals
-
Why does Donald Trump keep showing up at major sporting events?
Today's Big Question Trump has appeared at the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500 and other events
-
‘Democracy is under threat globally’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Former top FBI agents sue, claiming Trump purge
Speed Read The agents alleged they were targeted by a “campaign of retribution”
-
Home Depots are the new epicenters of ICE raids
In the Spotlight The chain has not provided many comments on the ongoing raids
-
Why does Trump keep interfering in the NYC mayoral race?
Today's Big Question The president has seemingly taken an outsized interest in his hometown elections, but are his efforts to block Zohran Mamdani about political expediency or something deeper?