Beneath the dark cloak of U.S. deportation: Bureaucratic distancing tactics employed by the deportation system

honors thesisCollege of Social & Behavioral SciencePolitical SciencePeregrine Schwartz-SheaU.S. deportation policy is implemented behind a dark cloak of secrecy. Distancing tactics are employed throughout the deportation process to prevent those participating within the bureaucracy from feeling empathy for those they process. Pachirat (2011) provides a three-part template of analysis for the way that bureaucracies divorce morality from both those who participate within it and those who observe it from the outside. Concealment, distance, and sequestration are three mechanisms of power that prevent participants from recognizing the humanity of deportees. These distancing mechanisms prevent participants from feeling any sense of responsibility or guilt for their actions. A pervasive national narrative presents immigrants as offenders and thus deserving of U.S. enforcement. Because of this narrative, Pachirat's proposed "politics of sight", a solution of transparency, would not be sufficient to cause a public reaction worthy of bringing about formative change to deportation policy. Racism and xenophobia are the driving factors behind detention and deportation. This can be observed when U.S. citizens of Hispanic origin are regularly detained and deported all while being denied their rights to due process. The increase in the demand for detention leads to an increase in the revenue of private prisons corporations. Before exposure of deportation practices can have a formative effect on the way deportation processes are implemented, a change in the national perception of undocumented immigrants would have to occur