Deportations from the U.S. reached record highs in the aftermath of the Great Recession (2007–09). At the peak, this wave of deportations reached over 400,000—as many in one year as in the entire decade of the 1980s. The majority of these deportees have U.S. citizen family members, nearly all of whom remain in the U.S. when their relatives are deported. Over 90 percent are men, and nearly all are sent to Latin America, creating gender and race consequences for these communities. Interviews with twenty-five people from California who experienced the deportation of a family member provides insight for this presentation on the collateral consequences of mass deportation.

Tanya Golash-Boza is a professor of sociology at the University of California–Merced. Golash-Boza has published several books and dozens of articles and book chapters. Her latest book is Deported: Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor and Global Capitalism (2016).