What happens when someone is deported?

They are transported back to their home country at taxpayers expense.

Yeah what @john65pennington said, and then in places like Alabama, there are job shortages in the crop industries because Americans realize that they don’t want to work long hours for cheap wages and we wonder why Mexicans will take that job in the first place.

Also, ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) of other countries are supposed to handle the situation upon arrival at an airport. Most other countries especially third world countries aren’t really strict upon, “Check-In.”

Yup, that’s what happens…the few, that get caught…

Unfortunately, sometimes families get separated – because the individual who gets caught does not want their families to have to be dropped off in their original country with nothing & no one to help. Of course, those individuals who find themselves in this situation, make every effort to come back to the US just as soon as possible. Deportation is not the best answer IMO.

What happens is that once the deportee is landed at his place of origin, he is no longer the responsibility of the United States (or of whatever deporting state). Up to a few years ago, Trinidad and Tobago made no provision for returning deportees. They were literally dumped at the airport, usually late at night – and sometimes without papers (although I don’t know if that part is true). It is only fair to note that the U.S. frequently deported people without informing us. That came to an end when there was an agreement that deportations could not take place without advance notice.

Nowadays, deportees are expected, met at the airport and sent to halfway houses if they have no family/friends to go to. Many are people who went abroad as infants and have no ties to the home country.

Probably depends a little on the situation. One woman I used to work with from Chile, had a Chilean friend who had lived in the US many years. Turns out she was here on a tourist visa (some tourist visas last months or years, not sure about her specific visa). Anyway, the woman was coming through immigration and customs at Miami airport after being on a trip to Chile, and they decided to inspect her bags. They found an American business card of hers, held her, put her back on the next plane to Chile. I doubt immigration set up anything at the airport in her country? Not sure. She will never be given permission again to enter America on any sort of travel.

I know two people who were deported – one Canadian and one Tanzanian. Neither of them were deported on US-tax payer’s dime..it seems that only happens when resident aliens (people living in the US, but without citizenship) commit a crime and are deported unwillingly and do not have the financial means to cover their return flight/travel expenses.
A larger number are deported for INS status issues and pay their own airfare. If you’re able to pay they WILL make you pay to travel to your home country.

The Canadian woman was a successful Realtor who worked with my mother. After divorcing her American husband she lost her legal status to stay in the US (due to the divorce—she’d never applied for Citizenship during their nearly decade long marriage) and once her green card expired was notified she was not able to legally work in the US. When her employer noticed this she was “dismissed” as not legally able to work.
She hung around a few months after that, but her (bitter) ex-husband contacted the local police. She was asked, politely, by the police, who visited her at her home as she was packing to move back to Toronto to live with her mother, to leave the country. Seeing as how she was packing and clearly departing they didn’t do anything more but wish her “Good Day & Good Luck”. Not to say it was a double standard..but I think the fact that she was an attractive professional woman and clearly not attempting to evade the police—just wrapping up her affairs and leaving…they didn’t give her a hard time even though she was in fact overstaying her expired green card.

My Tanzanian young friend was a college student. He was here on a study visa and only allowed to work a limited number of hours. Even so, he found a job and was being paid under the table—and over time he was more interested in working than studying and failed to stay in University and hence lost his student visa to stay in the US.

He was living at an Uncle’s house (an Uncle with citizenship) and essentially flying under the radar until one day he had a minor fender bender while driving and the police who responded to the accident noticed his expired driver’s license. When they ran his license through their computer they found that the INS was looking for him (having noticed that he didn’t depart the country) so even though it was a minor fender bender, he ended up locked up in the local jail.
He was held there for nearly 3 months waiting for a trial regarding his INS deportation. His family paid for a lawyer and he wrote a letter of apology for over-staying his visa and the family paid for his travel home to Tanzania. Even so, he was slapped with a ban on re-entering the US for 10 years. (At least it wasn’t a lifetime no-re-entry ban—that’s mainly what they were trying to avoid.)

From what I’ve heard over the years from others & from a really excellent story on “This American Life” some couple years ago…when you’re deported unwillingly there is typically co-operation between other country’s immigration and/or police agencies.
If you don’t have family to stay with (the example I heard was of a young man born in Nicaragua, but raised entirely in the US..who knew no one in Nicaragua—just had some distant cousins), typically the immigration police in your home country does the “hand-off” at the airport and takes you to either a jail or half-way house type accommodation.
This is in the case where a legal resident (say, a El Salvadoran man working in the US with a valid green card) is arrested and deported for illegal behavior and returned to their home country.

@geeky_mama I seem to remember when my husband changed his status to being attached to me due to our marriage, that after 5 years I think he was able to have a green independent of me. What I don’t remember for sure, is if it was automatic, probably not, or if he had to change his status. So, I am surprised to hear your story about the Canadian woman. That sucks. For istance my husband sponsored his parents and they have green cards, and I don’t think when they renewed last year that the renewal had anything to do with my husband. I can’t remember for sure, I helped fill out all the paperwork for them, and I don’t think so. It never occurred to me they might not get renewed. I didn’t think that happened except when people live outside of the US and fail to re-enter to maintain status.

@JLeslie – it DID suck for her. I remember being really surprised that she was being deported after having built a life Stateside (this was in Ohio) for so long. She owned a house and everything.. I don’t remember why she wasn’t able to get a green card (though I do recall that she tried and could not)—it could have been a timing issue where she let something lapse too far gone..
Having helped a friend who married a Japanese woman navigate the INS..I’d say it’s a wonder there are ANY legal immigrants to the States. INS strikes me as the single most dysfunctional bureaucratic branch of government.. they make going to the DMV or dealing with the IRS seem like a picnic in comparison.

@geeky_mama It wasn’t that bad for us. We did hit a snag when my husband applied for citizenship. He had not given his name to selective service when he had first come in on a student visa. Know that all his documents were handled by lawyers when he came for school, and then again lawyers handled his INS needs when it switched to a working visa. When we got married I told him we can do everything ourseves, and indeed getting the legal residency attached to me was fairly painless. That whole time no one ever mentioned selective service. Then he applied for citizenship and that document was missing. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine immigrants here on student visas were required to sign up for selective service. Anyway, his ability to get citizenship was a delayed a few months as we straightened it out, people were helpful actually at INS.

His ceremony to gake the oath was nothing short of amazing. Other people talk about it as annoying and taking all day. My husband’s ceremony was on Miami Beach in the convention center. There were 3,000 people becoming Americans that day. Each was allowed to bring one guest, I was there, out in the gallery with the rest of the guests. They had a singer who sang all the great songs, God Bless America, My Country Tis of Thee, The Star Spangled Banner. The judge spoke about the day, what it meant. The judge said there were 70 countries represented that day, and asked the about to become American citizens to stand when their country was called and remain standing. Astralia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Colombia, Cuba (half the place stood up on Cuba, it is Miami after all) Denmark, England, and on, and on. It was absolutely fantastic. Near the end we all stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. I have to say I teared up at some points. Later I found out my husband had done the same. He still has the small American flag they gave him, and of course the document with the President’s signature. I found it ironic that he has special papers for being a citizen, with a President’s signature, and I have nothing.

Sorry to wander off on a tangent, the story just came to mind, and I am so glad Miami makes a big deal out of the event. After everything people go through to become American citizens it should be an enjoyable day in my opinion with good memories, and ours was.

I was deported from Trinidad in 2002 going to Canada illegally with a Bravados passport and I am a Guyanese. I went back to Trinidad in 2010 and the immigration office says that I cannot enter the county, since I have defaulted and that I need to do an apology letter.
Who do I address this letter to?