Center for Migration and Development

Full video coverage of the proceedings can be viewed from the C-SPAN video library.

On March 28, 2011, the Center for Migration and Development in collaboration with the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Program in Latin American Studies, Program in Latino Studies, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Affairs, progam in Law and Public Affairs and the Unviersity Center for Human Values hosted a "Roundtable on Deportations and National Security" on the campus of Princeton University.  Deportations from the United States have soared, with nearly 400,000 individuals removed from American soil in 2010—a record since the Department of Homeland Security was formed eight years ago.  Since 2007, more than 1.3 million people have been deported, including convicted criminals but also many workers with no criminal records. What are the implications of intensified deportation measures for those implementing them and for those affected by them?  What is the impact of including immigration policy under the country’s national security framework? These are the central questions to be addressed by the event.

The 9/11 attack on New York and Washington brought about the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security and the incorporation of immigration and naturalization services under its purview. Is the nation’s security best served by bringing illegal immigrants out of the shadows, or by deporting them? In a political climate where comprehensive immigration reform has not been accomplished and anti-immigrant feelings are growing, the present situation poses problems both to those charged with implementing deportation policies and to immigrant communities feeling their impact. 

The event was envisioned as a gathering of academics, practitioners, public officials and representatives of service and advocacy organizations to discuss issues of shared concern. The objective was to foster dialogue and mutual understanding in an atmosphere of civility, not confrontation. Experts participating in the event will address the problems and risks faced by personnel in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Immigration Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), as well as the difficulties confronted by families experiencing deportations.

In addition to Preston, other principal speakers included Alejandro Portes, director of the Center for Migration and Development; Douglas Massey, the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School; Ted Alden, the Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of "The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration and Security Since 9/11;" Amy Gottlieb, the American Friends Service Committee's director of the Immigrant Rights Program in Newark; Stacy Mann, the director of the Program on Immigration and Democracy at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University; and invited representatives from the Department of Homeland Security.

Effective July 1, 2011, Douglas Massey, the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, became the newly appointed director of the Office of Population Research.  Massey is a member of the CMD Executive Committee and holds a joint appointment in the Woodrow Wilson School and Department of Sociology.  A member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, he is the current president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and is a member of the Council of the National Academy of Sciences and co-editor of the Annual Review of Sociology.

Massey’s research focuses on international migration, race and housing, discrimination, education, urban poverty, stratification, and Latin America, especially Mexico. He is the author, most recently, of Brokered Boundaries: Constructing Immigrant Identity in Anti-Immigrant Times, coauthored with Magaly Sanchez and published by the Russell Sage Foundation.