Where Does Deportation Come From?

Deportation has impacted communities across California and the country, and has become the face of U.S. immigration policy today. At the culmination of a year marked by violent ICE raids, it’s crucial to understand how we got to this point and what may lie ahead.

Part origin story, part forecast, a one-on-one conversation between historian and MacArthur Fellow Kelly Lytle Hernández and filmmaker and MacArthur Fellow Alex Rivera will illuminate the history of deportation. The pair will discuss the first man to be deported under the 19th-century Chinese Exclusion Act, reach further back in time to consider that law’s predecessors, and, finally, return to the present day to pose questions about the future of U.S. banishment. Is deportation an anomaly of our modern era, or does it reflect the very heart of this country’s history? Who is targeted for deportation in America, and why? And where should we look for reform or respite—resistance groups, the courts, political leaders?

“Where Does Deportation Come From?” is an in-person-only event near the U.S.–Mexico border in San Diego. It will include a preview screening of Rivera’s forthcoming film Banishment, a live reading by Lytle Hernández from source material that inspired the film, and a conversation between Rivera and Lytle Hernández.

This program is part of Zócalo Public Square’s “What Connects California?,” a series of free public programs across the state marking the 175th anniversary of California’s statehood. This program will launch our “Brewing Ideas” segment, a format that offers intimate one-on-one conversations in breweries, wineries, coffee shops, and tea houses—where audience members can pour and ponder freely. Each “Brewing Ideas” program will bring together two experts from different fields on an issue critical to the future of California.