Despite significant efforts to deter unauthorized immigration, repeat migration to the United States following deportation is common. In a new study, my co-authors and I examined how having family in the U.S. affects the intent to return among migrants deported to El Salvador. We found that being separated from their families in the U.S. is the most important factor in the intent to return, even despite the severe penalties if caught.
In the two-year period between July 2010 and September 2012, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security deported 204,810 parents of U.S.-citizen children, who made up one-fourth of all removals.[2] In 2013, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency deported 72,000 parents of children who are U.S. citizens.
Deported parents face no good solutions to forced separation from their children. To keep their families intact, these parents must choose either to take their children with them or to leave them behind and risk harsh penalties in attempts to return.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data show that while 21 percent of all deportees in the U.S. are caught and deported multiple times, and this is true for more than a third of those with children who are U.S. citizens.[3] These data are limited to those apprehended and may therefore undercount repeat migration.
Those who return after deportation face harsh penalties if caught. A second illegal-entry violation is a felony subject to up to two years in prison. With a criminal record, the penalty can be up to 20 years in prison, depending on the prior conviction. Criminal penalties also mean that the vast majority of repeat violators will not qualify for legal status. Our study finds that the majority of deported parents will still risk these penalties to reunite with their families in the U.S.
Deportees with children in the U.S. are more likely to intend to return than deportees without children, at 52.5 percent compared to 32.9 percent. Deportees with a spouse and children in the U.S. are 3.8 times more likely to intend to return than unmarried and childless deportees.
We found that deportees with children in the U.S. have greater U.S.-specific human capital than deportees without them. They have spent, on average, six years longer in the U.S. prior to deportation, were more likely to be employed and to speak English. These factors may motivate deportees to return, but our results showed that these factors were not significantly associated with the intent to return, whereas family was.
We examined whether family structure mattered for deportees who were deported for criminal offenses. We find that even among those with criminal records, deportees with a spouse and dependent child are four times more likely to intend to return than those without families in the U.S., despite the serious penalties if caught.
Estimates on How Many Will Return
Research shows that the intention to migrate strongly predicts actual migration. Prior studies have found that from 45 to 75 percent of those who intend to migrate actually do.[4]
The actual number could be much larger. Studies of Central American and Mexican transnational families show that remigration is more common among Mexicans than Central Americans.[5] Remigration is easier from Mexico because of the shorter distance and a history of circular migration between Mexico and the U.S. By far the majority of deportees are Mexican immigrants.
Rethinking Penalties for Re-entry
Our study raises questions about the logic and cost-effectiveness of deporting parents who have children in the U.S., especially given the psychological and financial consequences of deportation on families.[6] In addition to these consequences, immigration detention and removal operations cost roughly $2.9 billion annually.[7]
Harsh penalties designed to deter re-entry, even for deportees with criminal records, clearly do not work when families are involved. Further steps to reduce the deportation of parents of U.S. citizen children, as in providing greater prosecutorial and judicial discretion in deportation hearings, should be considered.
Erin Hamilton received her degree in Sociology from the University of Texas, Austin in 2009. Her current research investigates the social and demographic sources of international migration from Mexico to the United States.
More than 45,000 Jamaicans were deported from abroad between 2000 and 2014, primarily from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Each month these countries return more than 100 Jamaicans on average to a nation grappling with persistently high levels of crime and poverty.
Jamaica receives the highest share of individuals deported from the United States on criminal grounds, with those convicted of criminal offenses accounting for 89 percent of Jamaican deportees repatriated in 2012. Nearly 88 percent of Jamaicans returned from all countries from 2006 to 2014, however, were deported for reasons unrelated to violent crime, the most common offenses being illegal immigration and drug possession.
These findings are in line with those of earlier studies conducted in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, in which only 13 percent and 15 percent of 332 and 565 criminal deportees surveyed, respectively, had subsequently been charged with a crime. This recidivism rate is low when compared with that of prisoners released from local prisons.
One important result of the UWI workshops and research was the creation of the National Organization of Deported Migrants (NODM), which facilitates reintegration services for deportees in Jamaica. Founded in 2009 as an outgrowth of the Family Unification and Resettlement Initiative (FURI), a Jamaica-based nonprofit assisting in the reintegration of deportees, NODM focuses in particular on the social and economic reintegration of those deported for criminal offenses.
A rich landscape of local and international organizations and services works to meet the needs of the deportee population in Jamaica, including FURI and NODM as well as Open Heart Charitable Mission, Hibiscus Initiatives, the Salvation Army, and Open Arms Drop-In Center within Bellevue Hospital in Kingston. NODM occupies a unique space in that it is led by criminal deportees who have a particular focus on serving other criminal deportees, while maintaining structured relationships with government agencies and other NGOs. NODM membership is available to any Jamaican who has ever been expelled, deported, or otherwise forcibly removed from another country and returned to Jamaica, regardless of the reason for removal or whether the individual served a prison sentence.
More importantly, NODM also helps deportees launch small, self-sufficient enterprises, typically in agriculture, service, and inner-city revitalization. One project, for example, has engaged deported migrants in planting, harvesting, and selling carrots and potatoes. To fund such ventures, NODM has created community-managed, self-sustaining capital funds, from which loans for communal enterprises can be accessed and then paid back from future profits. The idea is to develop industries with the capacity to generate sustainable income and the ability to employ deportees.
Several international actors contribute to reintegration efforts in Jamaica. One example is Hibiscus Initiatives, a British NGO offering guidance and case management services to facilitate resettlement of foreign nationals detained or imprisoned in the United Kingdom, including those to be returned to Jamaica. In addition, the Salvation Army operates facilities for social services and education for underserved populations on the island, including community centers, a medical clinic, and an addiction rehabilitation center.
The work of NODM and similarly situated organizations aligns with what deportees themselves believe to be essential to their successful reintegration. A 2014 survey by Elizabeth Thomas-Hope for the International Organization on Migration and the British High Commission asked 300 deported migrants just this question, and respondents provided the following three common hopes for Jamaica:
The first of these is arguably a precondition for the second and third goals. When a known deportee is entrusted with a good job or a deportee-owned business succeeds, the returned migrants involved are able to more fully reintegrate into society. Thus a positive reinforcement effect sets in, wherein giving deportees decent jobs helps combat stigma, in turn helping more of them obtain employment.
The Jamaican case illustrates that opportunities for economic inclusion are essential to successful reintegration. Such social and economic empowerment at the individual level has the added benefit of being good for national development. While rebuilding lives in their home country, deportees simultaneously build a community that allows others to do the same.
Milovanovic, Dragan and Stuart Henry. 2001. Constitutive Definition of Crime. In What Is Crime? Controversies Over the Nature of Crime and What to Do About It, eds. Stuart Henry and Mark Lanier. Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Thomas-Hope, Elizabeth. 2014. Reintegration and Rehabilitation of Forced Returnees to Jamaica: Survey of the Reintegration of Deportees. Report to International Organization on Migration and British High Commission. Kingston, Jamaica.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and World Bank. 2007. Crime, Violence, and Development: Trends, Costs, and Policy Options in the Caribbean. Washington, DC: UNODC and World Bank. Available Online.
Bernard Headley is a retired Professor of criminology at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, and is Founder and Board Chair of the National Organization of Deported Migrants in Kingston.
Learn about top state and county destinations for unauthorized immigrants in the United States based on their country or region of origin in this interactive map. The map displays population totals by state, as well as the top concentrations at county levels by selected country or region of origin.
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