Immigration: Deportation and the Pseudo-Science of Unassimilable Peoples

In this essay (Symposium on Immigration Law – Immigrants, Vigilantes, and Immigration Reform: Civil Rights in the 21st Century, SMU Dedman School of Law, 2007), the author seeks to critically examine an important aspect of immigration policy. Recent events, including scholarly analysis and political action, raise the question of whether it is appropriate to direct deportation efforts primarily at Mexican and other Latino immigrants on the ground that such peoples are unassimilable. In Part II, the author describes how perceptions of Latino unassimilability appear to have led to deportation efforts being directed against Mexicans and Latinos. In Part III, he argues that this apparent deportation program should be rejected to the extent that it is based on the idea that Mexicans and Latinos are unassimilable peoples. In Part IV, he introduces the Symposium papers.