The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Million Dollar Hoods initiative unveiled on Wednesday the Mapping Deportations, a portal serving as an analytical tool for U.S. immigration policy.
The data reveals that the peak of deportations during the first term of the Republican leader occurred in 2019, with 97 Portuguese citizens expelled from the United States.
According to the Mapping Deportations portal, which compiles data up to 2022, deportations decreased to 24 following the inauguration of Democratic President Joe Biden in January 2020.
However, the record high of 191 deportations of Portuguese nationals was recorded in 2010, when another Democrat, Barack Obama, was the U.S. President.
There are officially 1.45 million people of Portuguese origin residing in the United States, according to the most recent census from 2020.
The latest report from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement indicates that 69 Portuguese individuals were repatriated in 2024, nine more than the previous year.
At the end of February, the then Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities acknowledged in the Assembly of the Republic that there are no exact figures regarding the Portuguese at risk of deportation from the U.S.
José Cesário noted that 360 had already exceeded the 90-day temporary stay granted under the ‘visa waiver’ program (which allows travel for business or tourism without a prior visa) and that the U.S. Senate (upper house of parliament) had identified around four thousand as being overstayed.
Cesário also mentioned at that time that 24 Portuguese were detained in the United States.
The Mapping Deportations data shows that the United States has deported a total of 5,323 Portuguese since 1895.
Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at UCLA School of Law, who leads the project, explained that the mapping reveals how “systemic racism” has shaped immigration laws.
The data indicates that 96% of all deportation orders were directed to countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa.
For instance, the United States has deported over 69,000 Brazilians since 1895, including 2,507 in 2022, and 8,549 during Donald Trump’s first term.
UCLA professor Kelly Lytle Hernández, who participates in the project, stated that it illustrates how immigration laws, particularly deportation policies, have shaped the racial composition of the country since its founding, “a phenomenon that is happening today.”
