Abstract

RUIZ MARRUJO, Olivia. Deportation and forced family separation at the San Diego-Tijuana Border. Culturales [online]. 2017, vol.5, n.1, pp.121-149. ISSN 2448-539X.

Deportations from the United States have led to the separation of thousands of undocumented mothers and fathers from their children. Focusing on the San Diego-Tijuana border, this article explores how immigration policy came to permit, if not prescribe, forced family separation. By employing a multi-dimensional analytical framework, it focuses on the interplay of: the globalization of expulsion; the historical use of deportation as a form of population control in the border area; the interconnections of the immigration and child welfare systems; and the day-to-day praxis of deportation. It is argued that forced family separation has deep roots in the San Diego-Tijuana border, the legislative regimes of immigration and child welfare and their praxis, all of which have led to its “normalization” in the region.

Keywords : forced family separation; deportation; undocumented immigration; San Diego- Tijuana border.

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