BROKEN HOPE

Tramonte and Setty combine personal stories with analysis of public policy to provide an overview of the problems with deportations from the United States.

Through interviews, the authors (Tramonte is a communications consultant and director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance; Setty is a senior policy analyst on the immigration and immigrant families team at the Center for Law and Social Policy) have collected the experiences of more than 250 people who have been deported from the United States—deportations that have created “lasting and unnecessary damage on ordinary people.” Their study focuses primarily on the effects on families, leading to analyses of the larger impacts on communities and society as a whole. Many of the personal stories referenced stem from “massive, SWAT-team style raids” throughout northern Ohio conducted by Trump’s ICE following his election and contain devastating testimony from the individuals who lived these experiences. Tramonte and Setty dig into research on the layers of harm resulting from events such as loss of income, children falling into poverty, mental health issues, physical health issues, and more. This research informs their concrete analysis as they go through the Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations to detail how systemic racism has affected immigration law and how more and more people have become eligible for deportation. The authors conclude with recommendations for improving the system. Tramonte and Setty’s breakdown of immigration policy across administrations is particularly enlightening and insightful, and the stories they have collected are potent and powerful, such as that of Seyni Diagne, who received no treatment for his cancer or hepatitis C, neither in ICE detention nor after being sent to jail in Mauritania, his country of origin. In organizing and building their overall argument, however, the authors’ use of a personal perspective versus a more critical, scientific eye feels unbalanced; certain stories are referenced anecdotally without the same background or gravitas as others. Even as it builds to a compelling thesis on immigration, the book feels unsure of the best rhetorical strategy for getting there.

A compelling, if at times uneven, argument for reforming deportation policy.