Why is deportation done instead of imprisonment or making people become documented? In other words, why does deportation exist?

Deportation makes it someone elses problem.

Imprisonment until when? Because at some point you'd have to let them out, and then you're back to square one. Crossing a border to seek a better life isn't a crime worthy of lifetime imprisonment.

They won't give them a path to citizenship because of xenophobia, plain and simple. Immigration is good for the economy, and there's no such thing as "stealing jobs", so it only comes down to wanting to maintain cultural (or ethnic) purity.

The outcome of a system is its purpose.

The goal is to create a slave class. We never got over our societal addiction to slavery. Slavery in the US never ended, both de facto slavery and legal slavery.

The goal of our immigration system is to create millions of workers who will accept low pay, long hours, and poor conditions with little options or recourse.

because it's really about hating brown people. its simply racism

It's like trying to enter a Costco without a membership. If they catch you they are gonna kick you out. Back to where you came from.

The legal immigration process takes time and if we just made them citizens when we caught them that would reward people for skipping the process. Not exactly a punishment. We

It's obviously much more complicated than that, but that's a simple way to look at it.

If order is to be maintained then illegal entry cannot be perceived to be a route to citizenship (even via a prison sentence).

Deportation, and what's currently being done, don't have the same core existence.

Currently, deportation is being weaponized.

At its core, deportation is a perfectly valid thing. No country has to accept everyone that wants in. They certainly don't have to allow them to bypass normal, humane methods of immigration, asylum, or temporary residence.

Deportation is saying that we aren't going to treat you badly by doing things to you, but you can't stay here.

Unfortunately, deportation can be misused, and it is being misused in an ongoing fascist takeover. It is bypassing all the humane and lawful processes that are supposed to protect people. It isn't being done correctly, or for the right reasons. It's yet another violation of human rights in the name of bigotry.

it's a way of getting rid of people without significant legal follow up. everything that led to the deportation can be a sham, because once they're out of the country nobody from the government gives AF any more.

Racism.

Deportation has always been about keeping the US white. The first immigration law in the US was called the Chinese Exclusion Act and was passed to keep Western states white dominated.

Many undocumented immigrants would probably love to be documented and an official citizen or permanent resident. They probably don't qualify though, which is why they are in the country undocumented. Its a very long process and not available to everyone, otherwise there would be a flood of people immigrating. There's a gate for a reason, to keep the country an exclusive club members only.

Because we're a cruel people.

This is more related to why there's no legal pathways rather than "why deport", but I could think of a few reasons that make it difficult to improve legal immigration:

• Bureaucracy in some countries (notable example being the US) makes it slow/difficult to pass new laws
• Since immigrants (legal or not) can't vote, laws regarding improving immigration pathways aren't usually popular among the voter base
• There isn't a country in the world that has figured out how to "solve" the immigration problem, so there isn't even a good reference point
• There is a global rise in right-wing and sometimes far-right sentiment, which are often targeted at reducing immigration, which makes improving immigration pathways even less politically appealing

I guess if legal immigration isn't really an option then deporting someone might just seem like the "natural", lawfully correct thing to do. I don't exactly agree with this but I think that might be what's happening

Racism. Lmao.

I mean I would also be fine with labor camps but it's a bit less humane