The 1917 US Immigration Law marks a significant turning point in migration governance as a whole. More specifically regarding deportation, it shifted from a means of border control to become a post-entry tool of social oversight. Scholars stress that this transition was not sudden and developed gradually during the pre-war decades, yet they overlook how deportation was carried out during the war years immediately preceding the reform. This article discusses how the First World War disrupted deportations to Europe, the pressures this set on migration governance and the solutions the immigration authorities came up with. Apart from legal and humanitarian aspects, the article draws attention to the logistical and financial considerations shaping formal deportation policies and how these were put into practice. It does so from the perspective of an important but much neglected go-between in migration governance: the transatlantic shipping companies. Before 1917 they carried most of the legal, logistical and financial responsibility for executing deportations. In the article I argue that under the new law, shipping companies continued to function as an essential actor in immigration enforcement. Yet, by granting more leeway to the immigration authorities to carry out deportations independently, the law marked a crucial turning point in reducing the responsibility of transport companies for migration governance. |
