Deportation and Broken Returns

THE HISTORY OF THE CARIBBEAN | Episode: Deportation and Broken Returns

In this episode of our History of the Caribbean series, we examine the brutal reality of the "broken return." Since the nineteen-nineties, the legal landscape of the United States has transformed, turning neighbors into "removals" and forcing thousands into permanent exile.

We trace the impact of the nineteen ninety six Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) and how it stripped judicial discretion, destabilizing the Caribbean diaspora from Brooklyn to Little Haiti. This is not just a story of policy; it is the story of families fractured by ICE Air flights and the stigma of the "deportee" in cities like Kingston and Port-au-Prince.

Inside this episode:

• Chapter One: The Paperwork of Exile. How the "aggravated felony" became a tool for mass removal.

• Chapter Two: The Flight to Nowhere. The physical and psychological shock of arrival in a "home" that feels foreign.

• Chapter Three: The Shadow of the Returnee. The struggle for reintegration and the rise of resistance movements like Chans Altenativ in Haiti.

This is our history—unfiltered and grounded in the grit of survival. We explore the consequences of a system that chooses the machine over the man, leaving the Caribbean to absorb the human cost of foreign policy.

Keywords & Topics covered: Caribbean Diaspora History, Jamaica Deportation, Haiti Migration, IIRIRA 1996, Criminal Alien Narrative, Transnational Families, Caribbean Social Issues, Immigration Reform History.

#CaribbeanHistory #Diaspora #Documentary #SocialJustice #Podcast