UC San Diego

The number of deportations in the United States has broken records under the Obama Administration. Issues of national security and sovereignty have allowed a criminal framing of undocumented migrants and the rise in deportations. Immigration policies have made clandestine border crossings extremely dangerous and expensive, therefore, greatly avoided. This has resulted in migrants settling in the United States and bringing or starting a family. Deportations, then, separate migrants from their family often on a long-term or permanent basis. Because of San Diego's proximity to the US-México border, the landscape throughout the county is filled with immigration agents and their expanding resources. Collaboration between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local police departments in North County San Diego has led to high levels of immigration enforcement and deportations of settled migrants and the separation from their families. These separations have lasting psychosocial effects on family members remaining in the United States. This thesis discusses the ways the political violence of a person's deportation causes ripple effects within his or her family. Ethnographic data is analyzed in order to understand how these have lasting impacts on the self, identity, and bodily experience. Findings include immediate and sometimes permanent changes to family structure, identity and roles within the family, as well as mental health issues. Implications for policy and future research are also discussed