We need to talk about Deportation

Ava Behjat ’27

Copy Editor

What do you do when you flee death in your motherland but are denied entry in a nation that prides itself as being a haven for all? This is the dilemma of 300 immigrants currently detained in detention camps in Panama. Who sent them there? The United States of America, specifically the Trump administration, who has referred to immigrants as “illegal monsters”, according to the Guardian. 

These 300 “monsters” consist of mostly Iranian and Afghani refugees, with many Chinese and Nigerian as well. 112 of these migrants are children. If these people return to their homelands, they could be executed or imprisoned for crimes like religious conversion or questioning authority.

Hidden in the Panamanian jungle, the camps are split up by nationalities and tear siblings, partners and relatives from each other. Afghan women separated from their families are terrified of falling back into the hands of the Taliban who have “already signed [their] execution order”, according to a video posted in February by one of the Iranian detainees, Artemis Ghasemzadeh. 

Detainees’ phones are confiscated, they are denied meetings with lawyers and are forced to live with poor hygienic conditions. As one detainee describes in an article from USA Today, “It looks like a zoo, there are fenced cages” and like animals, authorities captured migrants by “tying [their] hands and feet.” 

Those trapped are forced to sleep on the ground, eat stale food, and are denied medical attention. Many residents report seeing “sick and fainting children” and hearing “cries and horrifying noises.” Authorities have blocked journalists and aid groups from entering the camp, even though diseases like dengue fever and malaria are widespread. If this sounds illegal, that’s because it is, but President Trump is overriding laws such as the right for migrants to receive legal aid.

“I applied for asylum in the US, but I never saw a court, nor did I receive any formal deportation notice,” said Ghasemzadeh. “I heard President Trump say he would tighten deportation measures. We thought he meant criminals, not people who are in danger and have done nothing wrong.”

As of March, Panama has given these immigrants at least 30 days to leave South America for two options: either return to their homeland or “another place”, but for a majority of migrants this “other place” is America, who has denied them entry. Afghani refugee, Hayatullah Omagh, elaborates on this: “I can’t go back to Afghanistan… Under the control of the Taliban who want to kill me, how can I go back?”

Some have seen no other option and have attempted escape or suicide.

But I think it is important to note that these immigrants are of ethnicities who have been the subject of racial prejudice, and whose nations are frequently exploited by Western powers. So, is this treatment of immigrants for the good of the nation or is it just systematic racism made acceptable by propaganda? 

As one migrant states, “I wonder why Afghan women and Iranians whose lives are at risk were on the first deportation flight.”