|
July 9, 2004
Mass Deportation
of Legal Residents
By Erika Robles/HispanicVista.com
According to
official figures, as of late January
2004, more than 63,000 immigrants have
been detained over the past year.
However, leading immigration attorney,
Richard Iandoli, estimates it at about
100,000. Of those numbers, the Department
of Homeland Security, says it has already
deported as many as 70 percent, most of
them being legal residents.
On Sept 30, 1996, a new immigration act
was introduced called the "Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996." This
act allows for the deportation -or
removal- of any alien -illegal, legal and
non-immigrant- convicted of a misdemeanor
or felony that carries a punishment of at
least one year in jail, regardless of
whether they served the sentence or it
was reduced to simple probation.
The most disturbing parts of this act are
that the law is retroactive and that the
definition of "felony" has been
expanded.
The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration
Services states that the "primary
purpose of the 1996 amendment was to
expand laws regarding the
removal/deportation of criminal
aliens," no matter when the crime
was committed, expanding a whole class of
people who are now deportable. People who
committed a crime in the 1970s are
already facing deportation without hope
of appeal. "They are putting a more
serious penalty on something that a
person has already done," said
defense Attorney Ricardo M. Barros.
If a legal immigrant had done a crime
years and years ago, paid his penalty in
jail or probation, they now have to worry
about being deported even if it was 20
years ago. "If you commit one of
these crimes and you are married to a
United States citizen, there used to be a
waiver appeal because of the marriage.
That has been struck; you don't have that
process anymore. It does not matter if
you have four children who are American
citizens or not...The waiver, the relief
that legal immigrants got, has been
eliminated."
Moreover, prior to the introduction of
this law, a legal immigrant could face
deportation if he had been convicted of
an aggravated felony which meant murder,
any illicit trafficking, including
firearms, money laundering, or any crime
or violence for which a prison term of 5
years or more was imposed. The new
Immigration Act has changed all that. The
meaning of "aggravated felony"
for immigration purposes has changed and
it now includes less serious crimes such
as: shoplifting, driving under the
influence, fraud, burglary minor
technical violations of immigration law
-such as failure to update addresses and
other required information within
mandated deadlines- and many other
misdemeanors where a one-year sentence or
imprisonment was ordered by the court
regardless of any suspension or
withholding of execution.
The definition of aggravated felony was
also made retroactive, so that someone
with a conviction twenty years ago that
was not grounds for deportation when the
crime was committed is now deportable
without any possible relief, even though
they may have lived an exemplary life
ever since.
Although the law was introduced under
former President Bill Clinton's
administration, the law was unevenly
enforced until after the 9/11
catastrophe. Since them all those
arrested are held without bond until a
deportation hearing or until they waive
their rights to such a hearing -if the
crime was committed after the act was
enacted, the right of a hearing is
waived.
Many of the legal residents apprehended
had been living quite, law-abiding lives
for many years. However, they now face
removal charges for a crime they
committed sometimes decades ago and which
a penalty has already been paid. The old
saying: "they've paid their debt to
society," doesn't apply to them,
simply because they aren't US citizens.
Overall, the act is a massive and
complicated piece of legislation which
curtails and in most cases ends the US
life for an alien, and in numerous cases
causes extreme hardship and undue
separation of families.
Not too many articles have been written
about this critical reality that many
immigrants –including Hispanics- are
now facing. Since mid-2002, a massive
deportation of legal resident aliens has
occurred. Are we going to let this
continue? Find out where the presidential
candidate –J. F. Kerry- stands on
this issue. Write to your congressmen and
ask for their support.
____________________________________________
Erika Robles, a contributing columnist to
HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com),
is a writer and translator now living in
Eugene, Oregon. She was educated in
Mexico City; London, England; and
Melbourne, Australia. Contact at: erikare77@hotmail.com.
Web page: http://www.geocities.com/oakspublishing
|
