Inclusive Immigrant Justice: Racial Animus and the Origins of Crime-Based Deportation

Alina Das, Inclusive Immigrant Justice: Racial Animus and the Origins of Crime-Based Deportation, 52 U.C. Davis L. Rev. (2018 Forthcoming)

NYU School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 17-40

21 Pages Posted: 6 Nov 2017

See all articles by Alina Das

Alina Das

New York University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic

Date Written: November 2017

Abstract

The merger of immigration and criminal law has transformed both systems, amplifying the flaws in each. In critiquing this merger, most scholarly accounts begin with legislative changes in the 1980s and 1990s that vastly expanded criminal grounds of deportation and eliminated many forms of discretionary relief. As a result of these changes, immigrant communities have experienced skyrocketing rates of detention and deportation, with a disparate impact on people of color. Despite increasing awareness of the harshness of the modern system, however, many people still view criminal records as a relatively neutral mechanism for identifying immigrants as priorities for detention and deportation. Drawing on the early history of crime-based deportation, this essay argues that criminal records have never been a neutral means for prioritizing immigrants for detention and deportation from the United States. Rather, as this essay sets forth, racial animus has driven the creation and development of crime-based deportation from the beginning.

Suggested Citation

Das, Alina, Inclusive Immigrant Justice: Racial Animus and the Origins of Crime-Based Deportation (November 2017). Alina Das, Inclusive Immigrant Justice: Racial Animus and the Origins of Crime-Based Deportation, 52 U.C. Davis L. Rev. (2018 Forthcoming), NYU School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 17-40, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3064940

Alina Das (Contact Author)

New York University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic ( email )

New York, NY 10012
United States
(212) 998-6430 (Phone)

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