An Undocumented War: Inside Deportation’s Machinery of Violence

The article argues that deportation functions as a form of war against undocumented individuals, comparing it to historical American conflicts like the Vietnam War or the War on Drugs.

It suggests that deportation is driven by the same motives—genocide, white supremacy, and a focus on body counts—as these wars.

The term body counts refers to the number of casualties or victims in a conflict, a metric often used to measure progress or success.

The article challenges the idea that war requires two opposing sides, pointing out that America has historically waged wars against abstract concepts such as drugs, terrorism, or socialism without a traditional enemy.

It questions who qualifies as an American casualty in this war, emphasizing that the deported body, despite being removed from the country, remains an American body in a broader sense.