There are myriad concerns with the deportation system. It is difficult to practice this area of law without eventually feeling like a part of the machine, with tacit approval of its flaws and quirks. Flaws and quirks may at times deprive individuals of their rights, but they are to be expected, so the rationalization goes. But the outrage over the deportation of Jakadrien Turner story raises an interesting question. What makes people so upset? Is it that she is a child? The DHS deports children every day. Is it that she is now pregnant, or that she was deported to a place like Colombia? The DHS legally deports individuals to Colombia all the time, and children who have been deported are often the victims of exploitation. If these things are outrageous to you, then the entire process of deporting children should be outrageous.
But Jakadrien is a US citizen. Above all else, she had the right to not be deported by her government. And yet our system continues to fail to prevent the deportation of citizens (no this is not the first time). Until the system is fail-safe – until the DHS can guarantee it is sophisticated enough to check the name given by a 14 year old African American little girl from Texas so she doesn’t get deported to Colombia, the whole thing should be shut down.