But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon-and never comes home. “Immigration Detention Centres.Lisa Ko’s powerful debut, The Leavers, is the winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver for a novel that addresses issues of social justice. 2020, “Ellis Island: States of Incarceration.” Ellis Island | States of Incarceration, Humanities Action Lab, /story/ellis-island.

“Yearbook 2019.” Department of Homeland Security, 28 Oct. The majority of detention centers that are contracted out and include juvenile detention centers, shelters, and state & local jails (Immigration Detention Centres). There are 961 detention sites across the United States and Puerto Rico, but only 8 centers are directly operated by I.C.E. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan made the first major revision to US immigration by establishing the Interdiction Agreement, which led to the establishment of Guantanamo Bay as a detention center (Ellis Island: States of Incarceration).Ĭenters like the one depicted in The Leavers are operated by the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division of I.C.E. The United States’ first immigration detention center was established at Ellis Island in the 1890s. Immigration detention centers are not new either. Approximately 3.2 million immigrants were deported during Barack Obama’s presidency (Yearbook 2019). Approximately 2 million immigrants were deported during George W. Between 1892 to 1997, approximately 2.1 million immigrants were deported from the United States. Deportation in the United States has been increasing at an alarming rate.

While this is a fictional novel, it is based on the true stories of millions of immigrants who were stripped from their families because of immigration status. Her time at the camp ends after she endures physical and mental injuries and is deported back to China.

She is left in an unheated room with lights that are always on and given minimal time to eat and go outside. The novel depicts her treatment in the camp and the insufferable living conditions she endures. In the novel The Leavers by Lisa Ko, Polly, Deming’s mother, is detained by US immigration authorities in New York City and sent to an immigration detention center in the fictional Ardsleyville, Texas for 14 months.