Detention, death, and deportation: (Re)bordering Brazilian migrants under Bolsonarism and the pandemic

Abstract

This paper addresses the relations between migrants, (im)mobility, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Bolsonaro administration (2019–2022). It particularly explores the extent to which his government endorsed the rise of abusive US border control policies against Brazilian immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. The empirical focus of the paper analyses how Brazilians struggled with the implementation of the US’s controversial Title 42 expulsions during the Bolsonaro administration and the Coronavirus pandemic. There has been a sharp increase in deaths, arbitrary detentions, and deportations of Brazilians from the US since the Trump administration, which was aggravated by the alignment of the Brazilian government with US border control policies towards Latin America. This combined with Bolsonaro’s closure of embassies, secretariats, and councils that had been dedicated to representing Brazilians abroad, had strong impacts, especially among those who migrated to escape the historical socioeconomic crisis in Brazil since 2015, intensified by COVID-19. The empirical data presented in this study comes from a digital and press archive we compiled using official data provided by the Confins International Airport, the US Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, news from digital media, and a critical literature review focused on migration, mobility, and border controls. In addition to not seeking solutions for the economic and social motives driving the departure of Brazilians, the Bolsonaro government endorsed the US’s anti-migration agenda and cut programs to meet the needs of Brazilians abroad.