The article that I chose was written by Adam Goodman titled How 1970s U.S. Immigration Policy Put Mexican Migrants at the Center of a System of Mass Expulsion written for Time. In the article, Goodman discusses the period of mass expulsion that has occurred since the late ’70s in the US. Deportation was almost exclusively done through voluntary deportation in the 20th century, in which immigration authorities coerce and manipulate migrants into believing that voluntary migration is the “best of all the bad options.”
Although mass deportations are still occurring today there is a shortcoming of information on the root causes of why many migrants are forced to migrate to the US, sometimes repeatedly. The author touches on the dangers of migration statistics, and how these numbers are often used to push narratives of fear and urgency. These statistics try to excuse the violent deportations that continue to occur across the country. Images of the 2018 migrants from Central America are then used as weapons to instill fear regarding the safety of America and its financial and employment stability. The comfort of Americans is prioritized over the survival and livelihood of those who are forced to leave their homes in Latin America due to capitalist exploitation and intervention by the US.
The “liberal” perspective then becomes one of pity towards migrants, lacking a critical analysis regarding the causes of migration. These discussions need to include the many US corporations with manufacturing plants in Latin America in search of cheap labor, or the US funding of international military groups, support of coups, and the effects of colonialism that are still so prevalent in the Americas. Each perspective that neglects these root causes will never achieve a full understanding of US migration, or migration in general.