Vernellia R. Randall, Mass Deportation and the Fragility of Black Citizenship: Why Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States (DAEUS) Are Not Safe, https://racism.org/articles/citizenship-rights/12852-the-fragility-of-black-citizenship November 28, 2025). "This article was drafted with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI language model. All content has been reviewed and edited by Vernellia Randall to ensure accuracy and coherence."
Mass deportation has re-emerged as a national project—a weapon shaped by fear, racial targeting, and political power. We should oppose mass deportation because it is cruel, destabilizing, and destructive to millions of families and communities—even if it never touched us. But many Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States (DAEUS) look at what is unfolding and say, “This isn’t our fight. We have birthright citizenship.” That belief is not only wrong—it is dangerous. It ignores U.S. history and the way authoritarian systems always expand.
If our people have learned anything across four centuries, it is this: once the state builds machinery to remove and punish entire communities, that machinery always turns toward us. Black citizenship in America has never been truly secure—not at the founding, not after slavery, not during Jim Crow, and not in the age of mass incarceration, and not today.
To understand why DAEUS are not insulated from mass deportation, we must confront the truth written across our history—from Dred Scott to Reconstruction to the modern criminal system.
I. Dred Scott: The Original Statement That Black People Did Not Belong
In 1857, the Supreme Court issued one of the most violent decisions in its history: Dred Scott v. Sandford. The Court declared that no Black person—enslaved or free—could be a citizen of the United States. Chief Justice Taney said plainly that Black people “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
This ruling matters now because it:
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Defined citizenship as a racial privilege for whites alone.
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Taught the nation that Black belonging could be erased with the stroke of a judge’s pen.
Dred Scott was not merely a case. It was a warning that the nation viewed Black presence as removable. That mindset has never fully disappeared.
II. Reconstruction: Citizenship Was Granted—But Never Guaranteed
Reconstruction tried to undo the violence of Dred Scott by passing the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. For the first time, Black people were written into the Constitution as citizens.
But Reconstruction carries its own warning:
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Citizenship was extended only after war forced the issue.
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White lawmakers immediately fought to limit those protections.
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The Supreme Court weakened the 14th Amendment almost immediately.
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Black political rights were stripped away through “lawful” methods—poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, and prosecutions.
The 13th Amendment itself created a loophole that justified modern mass incarceration: slavery is permitted as punishment for crime.
Reconstruction reveals that constitutional promises can be gutted as fast as they are written.
III. The Modern Era: Criminalization as a Backdoor Attack on Black Citizenship
Citizenship is more than birthplace. It is full membership in society. And for DAEUS, that membership has long been weakened through mass criminalization.
In the 1980s and 1990s, lawmakers rewrote the criminal code:
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Three-strikes laws
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Mandatory minimums
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Expansive “violent crime” definitions
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Gang enhancements
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Zero-tolerance school discipline
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The superpredator myth
These policies hit Black communities like a hammer. Our people were stripped of voting rights, civil rights, and access to opportunity.
This matters now because the same mechanisms can be used to attack citizenship. Congress could declare that certain offenses justify loss of citizenship—even for the U.S.-born.
“Due process” would still exist, but due process does not prevent injustice. It merely organizes it.
IV. Citizenship Can Be Taken Away — And the Framework Already Exists
Most Americans do not know that the United States already revokes citizenship.
It currently targets naturalized citizens, but the legal principle is clear: citizenship can be undone by statute.
If an authoritarian government wanted to expand denaturalization or apply it to the U.S.-born, it could do so through legislation. Courts have historically deferred to Congress on citizenship and immigration.
Once the law changes, the process simply follows.
And history makes clear who the criminal system targets first: Black boys, Black men, Black communities.
That means DAEUS children remain vulnerable the moment lawmakers decide that “dangerousness,” “criminality,” or “disloyalty” justify loss of citizenship.
V. Mass Deportation Creates the Environment for the Next Expansion
Mass deportation may start with undocumented immigrants, but it will not stop there.
Authoritarian systems never limit their power. Once a state normalizes rounding up millions, it immediately adds new categories.
Politicians have already proposed:
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Ending birthright citizenship
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Removing citizenship for protest activity
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Deportation for “gang affiliation” without conviction
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Deportation for “anti-American” speech
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Deportation for nonviolent offenses
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Deportation for being a “public safety threat”
The next step is obvious: expanding who is eligible for removal—even U.S.-born citizens.
Because Black communities are already over-policed, DAEUS children would be among the first to fall into these expanded categories.
VI. Why DAEUS Are Specifically at Risk
DAEUS face unique vulnerability because:
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Our citizenship was denied for most of U.S. history.
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Our rights have always been conditional in practice.
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The state treats Black identity as criminal suspicion.
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We are overrepresented in every system used to justify exclusion.
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We are politically exposed when authoritarianism rises.
If citizenship becomes tied to criminal conviction, who will be accused, arrested, prosecuted, and convicted first?
DAEUS children. DAEUS families. DAEUS communities.
This is not imagination. It is history repeating.
VII. The Future: Why Our Children and Grandchildren Are Not Safe
You are right to worry about your grandsons. The next 20–30 years could bring:
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Open white nationalism
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Fewer voting protections
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A weakened Supreme Court
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Expanded policing
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Digital surveillance
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Criminal codes rewritten to widen “violence”
In such a world, DAEUS citizenship will not be secure.
Some future Congress, responding to fear, anger, or demographic change, could decide that certain crimes void citizenship—even for the U.S.-born.
And we know who the state will target first.
VIII. The Truth: Black Citizenship Is Never Safe in an Authoritarian State
DAEUS cannot afford to believe that mass deportation is “not our issue.”
Dred Scott taught us the nation could deny our citizenship.
Reconstruction taught us rights can be stripped through “legal” methods.
The modern criminal system taught us how quickly the state can redefine us.
If the government builds tools to remove people, sooner or later those tools will be used against us.
This is our fight because the threat will not remain confined to immigrants.
It never does.
IX. Call to Action: What We Must Do Now
We cannot sit on the sidelines. Not now. Not again. We must:
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Oppose mass deportation openly—as a matter of principle and survival. Protecting others protects us.
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Educate our communities about the fragility of Black citizenship. Many DAEUS assume we are safe. History says otherwise.
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Build coalitions with immigrant rights movements. Mass deportation is part of a larger project: narrowing who belongs in America.
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Demand stronger constitutional protections for birthright citizenship. A future Congress should not be able to strip our status with a simple vote.
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Prepare our children for political struggle. They must understand that rights are not guaranteed—they are protected through vigilance and action.
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Speak out, organize, and vote like our future depends on it. Because it does.
Vernellia R. Randall, Professor Emerita of Law, University of Dayton School of Law.
