From the Inside Out: The Coercive Power of Deportation and the Erosion of the Liberal Democratic State

Abstract

Deportation is the expulsion of a non-citizen from the territory of a state by force or coercion. Largely because it is perceived to be a necessary extension of the state’s immigration power, deportation carries the same prerogative force, benefits from the same sweeping ambit of executive discretion and is subject to the same diminished scrutiny. Deportation is, however, a distinct legal phenomenon. Present on state territory, deportees are simultaneously subject to the state’s laws by virtue of their territorial presence and excluded from the state’s liberal democratic values of legality and fundamental rights by virtue of their status. Deportation practices create spaces inside the state where these values do not reach. As a ‘spectacular state power’ that acts inside the state, deportation bears a higher justificatory burden. The failure of states to adequately discharge this justificatory burden interrupts the integrity of legality on the inside and erodes their liberal democratic character.