Broken Hope: Deportation and the Road Home

What if you were forced to pack your belongings and leave your family, friends, career, home, and life behind? Could you say good-bye to everyone and everything you love, not knowing if you will see them again? That is what deportation is: permanent banishment from your home, family, friends, and job, from a life built over years. It is an extreme action that causes lasting harm to everyone it touches. is a collaboration between the OHIA and the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) that highlights the experiences, hopes, and dreams of 255 people who were deported from the United States, as well as their loved ones. As a result of deportation, individuals and families, including young children and people of advanced age, experience: including lack of access to food, housing, health care, and childcare; , resulting in self-harm and long-term damage; Adverse Childhood Experiences, toxic stress, and ; and career goals; persecution, exploitation, homelessness, and a the stress and financial strain of unwillingly, and overnight; to help the people they love; and . But it doesn't have to be this way. The impact of deportation is a human-made problem, and the solution is also in the hands of people.