American Presidents, Deportations, and Human Rights Violations From Carter to Trump

Of the many issues polarizing societies today, immigration is one of the most contentious. In the United States, as in Europe, immigration was a defining issue in recent national elections. Immigration not only involves government policies but also the human rights of millions of people. American Presidents, Deportations, and Human Rights Violations studies how recent immigration policies in the United States developed during the Obama administration and are now being expanded in the first months of the Trump presidency. Documenting the harsh treatment of immigrants over the past twenty years, Bill Ong Hing shows how mass detention and deportation of immigrants, from Clinton's two terms and the Bush administration, have escalated even higher. This book questions what price the United States is willing to pay for such harsh immigration policies in terms of our national values, and the impact on the lives of the millions of immigrants who deserve the full protection of universal human rights obligations.

Introduction – deportation champion: Part I. Clinton and Bush Lead the Way for Others: 1. Nightmarish ICE enforcement tools; Part II. Obama's Shame: 2. Deporting unaccompanied children; 3. Family detention centers: creation, conditions, and continued detention; 4. Country conditions: why women and children flee the Northern Triangle; 5. Challenges to obtaining relief – asylum, right to counsel, due process, and mental health considerations; Part III. Entering the Trump ICE Age: 6. Contextualizing the Trump immigration enforcement regime; Part IV. And the Winner Is …: 7. Closing – a new deportation king; Epilogue – disrupting the deportation royalty.

Bill Ong Hing is Professor of Immigration Policy at the University of San Francisco, School of Law. He is the author of multiple books including, Ethical Borders: NAFTA, Globalization, and Mexican Migration (2010). He is also the lead author of Immigration Law and Social Justice (2017). He was co-counsel in the precedent-setting Supreme Court asylum case, INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca (1987), and represented the State Bar of California in helping to grant a law license to an undocumented law graduate.