Friday, June 22, 2012

1
Turning Point History and Lessons Learned from
the '96 Immigration Laws

• Friday, June 22, 2012
• 2pm 330pm EDT

2
Introduction and Logistics

• Facilitated by
• Andrea Black, Executive Director, Detention
  Watch Network
• Special thanks to Steering Committee members
  Christina Mansfield (Detention Dialogues) and
  Michael Tan (ACLU Immigrants Rights Project),
  and Silky Shah (DWN staff) for coordinating the
  webinar.

3
Mandatory Detention and the 1996 laws

• Judy Rabinovitz
• ACLU Immigrants Rights Project

4
Three Overarching Issues

• 1)      Mandatory detention is just one
  reflection and contributor to the broader
  problem which is the dramatic expansion of
  unnecessary detention
• 2)      To address mandatory detention, and
  unnecessary detention more generally, we need to
  look also at the laws that are fueling
  deportation hence our focus today on the 1996
  laws, of which mandatory detention was only one
  small part
• 3)      Many of these laws and the resistance
  to changing them stems from the fact that they
  target noncitizens with criminal convictions  in
  our advocacy we must be careful not to play into
  the view that there are good immigrants, and
  there are criminal immigrants

5
What are the 1996 Laws?

• Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
  Responsibility Act
• Enacted September 30, 1996
• Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act
• Signed into law April 24, 1996

6
Features of the 1996 Laws

• Expanded kinds of crimes that would lead to
  deportation, even of longtime lawful permanent
  residents
• Eliminated main form of relief for lawful
  permanent residents charged with deportation
  based on crimes, essentially subjecting them to
  mandatory deportation
• Did this by expanding definition of aggravated
  felony need not be aggravated or felonies
  and barring discretionary relief from removal for
  almost anyone with an agfel

7
Features of the 1996 Laws Contd

• Attempted to eliminate judicial review of removal
  orders based on criminal convictions
• Required detention pending removal proceedings of
  virtually anyone facing removal based on a crime,
  even crimes that are NOT agfels
• Other (expedited removal at border, etc.)

8
Mandatory Detention What is it and how did we
get here?

• What is mandatory detention?
• detention without a bond hearing
• includes longtime lawful permanent residents with
  criminal convictions
• includes asylum seekers
• broader issue is unnecessary detention of people
  who don't need to be detained

9
Congress Enactment of Statute in 1996 the
Political Context

• Not the first attempt
• The Political Context
• No Detention Policy no risk assessments,
  detention decision a function of bed space
• Culmination of attack on Criminal Aliens that
  had begun in the mid-1980s the toxic politics
  of anything involving immigrants/crime
• Just one part of package of laws (the 1996
  laws)that targeted immigrants with criminal
  convictions, among others

10
Congress Asserted Justification for Mandatory
Detention

• Concern about removal orders that werent being
  executed
• Studies showed that people werent being removed
  and that criminal aliens werent even being
  apprehended when they completed their sentences
• Conclusion lock people up and they will be easy
  to remove
• No consideration of alternatives (such as
  meaningful risk assessment policy issuing
  surrender letters other ways to insure
  availability for removal)

11
Executives Attitude Towards Mandatory Detention

• Administration (Clinton) opposed mandatory
  detention
• Even after enacted, pushed for delay in
  implementation because of lack of detention beds
• But once took effect, aggressively implemented,
  and have done so since, taking broadest
  interpretation of statutes reach and backing off
  only as a result of litigation

12
Why has Executive Chosen to So Aggressively
Implement the Statute?

• The toxic politics of criminal aliens.
• No one wants to be for them
• Everyone wants to be against them
• The Willie Horton scenario.
• Broader Context
• Administration not wanting to show that it was
  soft on enforcement, in order to win support
  for CIR

13
Conclusion

• To extent that there was ever a justification for
  mandatory detention, context now is completely
  different
• ICEs stated commitment to detention reform and
  launching of risk assessment tool
• Other mechanisms in place for identifying
  criminal aliens, (so they dont slip through
  cracks)
• Alternatives to detention that have been shown
  effective and less costly
• Need to broaden our focus to challenge not only
  mandatory detention, but the laws that lead to
  them, i.e., the broader package of 1996 laws that
  make deportation mandatory for longtime legal
  permanent residents, even those with minor and
  distant offenses.

14
96 Laws Impact on Immigrant Communities

• Donald Anthonyson
• Families for Freedom

15
Families for Freedom

• FFF was started when some of its founders
  families got detained and unfortunately got
  deported. Like most people, then and now, they
  had no idea of the 1996 laws and their
  devastating impacts when applied.

16
Impact most troubling issues

• The two laws, IIRAIRA and AEDPA, with their
  components that made misdemeanors aggravated
  felonies and introduced mandatory detention and
  deportation, have wreaked havoc on our members
  and their families.
• For having two twelve year old convictions for
  marijuana possession, a father of four US
  children is deported, leaving behind a fractured
  family bewildered at the logic of him being
  sentenced to a year but not serving any, yet ends
  up spending double that time in ICE custody and
  then deported.

17
Most troubling issues

• The high cost of fighting cases
• Lack of access to legal counsel
• Aggravated Felon logic of Mandatory Detention

18
Results An increase in fractured families
19
Questions and Answers

• To ask a question please click the hand with the
  green arrow. The facilitator will call on you
  when it is your turn. Due to time constraints we
  may not be able to get to everyones questions.
• In order to speak you must enter your audio pin

20
Fix-96 Advocacy to Fix the Unfair 1996
Deportation and Detention Laws

• Nancy Morawetz
• NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic

21
Background How Did AEDPA and IIRIRA Happen?

• Large comprehensive bills moving through in both
  Houses
• AEDPA enacted in April 1996 to mark the
  anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing
• Worse provisions on relief than the bills in both
  houses
• Worse provisions on detention than the bills in
  both houses
• Split the bill strategy pitting enforcement and
  criminal aliens against an effort to cut annual
  immigration numbers
• September 1996 conference committee on major
  bills
• Conference Committee more punitive than bills in
  both houses.
• No debate part of an omnibus bill to stop a
  government shut down

22
Examples of How the Final Bill Was Worse than the
House and Senate Bills

• No relief for agg fels instead of no relief if
  sentenced to five years for an agg fel
• Clock stop at commission of crime instead of
  clock stop only when proceedings started
• Broad grounds of mandatory detention instead of
  only for agg fels
• s.a.m. as an agg fel instead of as a
  deportability ground
• LPRs subject to inadmissibility rules for any
  trip if there is any ground of criminal
  inadmissibility instead of only for agg fels

23
Initial efforts to Fix 96

• 1997 Alliance for Justice video highlighting
  Jesus Collado long time LPR with old conviction
  detained after visiting his mother. Story
  premiered on Capitol Hill and shown at 50
  subsequent events featured on Dateline and
  NYTimes.
• Proponents of 1996 laws said that INS was
  applying law too broadly should exercise
  prosecutorial discretion.
• 1997-1999 articles by numerous journalists
  including Anthony Lewis of the NY Times profiling
  unfairness retroactive deportation laws.

24
Fix 96 Legislation

• 1999 Bills introduced
• Family Reunification Act of 1999 introduced by
  Barney Frank restored waiver for those with
  sentence of less than five years or for urgent
  humanitarian reasons.
• HR 2999 Fairness for Permanent Residents Act of
  1999 introduced by Rep. Bill McCollum after he
  had sought a private bill for Republican
  officials son. Would have limited retroactive
  repeal of 212(c) relief.

25
Fix 96 Legislation contd

• 1999-2000
• Extensive legislative visits by families affected
  by deportation laws
• July 1999 Fix 96 Campaign launched by national
  advocates
• 2000 Bill Passes the House.
• HR 5062 limiting the retroactive application of
  AF definition for cancellation and providing a
  process for those who had been deported.
  Introduced by Bill McCollum with bipartisan
  support. Passed the House.
• HR 5062 killed in the Senate due to opposition by
  a single Senator Phil Gramm of Texas.

26
Related Legislation

• 2000 Child Citizenship Act (automatic citizenship
  to some minor LPR children).
• 2000 LIFE Act extension of 245(i) to allow for
  adjustment based on family and employment visas.

27
Post 2001

• Even after 9/11 there was progress on fix 96
  legislation.
• Mobilization of advocacy communities in the wake
  of Cambodian deportations.
• November 2002 HR 1452 Family Reunification Act
  clears Judiciary Committee chaired by
  Republicans. (Hyde, Chair of Judiciary
  Committee Sensenbrenner, Chair of Immigration
  Subcommittee.
• Would have provided greater access to relief
  (depending on age of admission and with some
  exceptions based on crimes and history of
  incarceration)
• clock stop limited to date of proceedings
  limiting travel (101(a)(13) to trips longer than
  30 or 60 days
• cut back on mandatory detention if eligible for
  cancellation.
• No further action.

28
Important lessons from past legislative efforts

• Possible to find bi-partisan support where
  legislators felt the direct impact e.g.
  McCulloms private bill
• Possible to garner support on technical
  provisions that make no sense and are problematic
  for our clients such as the clock stop rule.
• Possible to gain support on limiting mandatory
  deportation and mandatory detention.
• A real champion (as we had in Barney Frank) makes
  a difference
• Mobilization of affected families makes a
  difference.
• Veto power of powerful legislators remains a
  problem.

29
Questions and Answers

• To ask a question please click the hand with the
  green arrow. The facilitator will call on you
  when it is your turn. Due to time constraints we
  may not be able to get to everyones questions.
• In order to speak you must enter your audio pin

30
Current advocacy the Dignity Not Detention
campaign

• Emily Tucker
• Detention Watch Network

31
Preventing the Expansion of Mandatory Detention
32

• Member and Community Education
• Getting Mandatory Detention Back Into The
  National Conversation
• Affirmative Legislative Advocacy
• Possibilities for Administrative Action
• Challenging the Criminality Excuse

33
Local organizing against Mandatory Detention

• Geoff Valdés Texans United For Families

34
Texans United for Families
 

• TUFF formed in 2006 initially in response to T.
  Don Hutto Detention Center and is an all
  volunteer organization.

35
TUFF organizing against Mandatory Detention

• TUFF has a three prong approach to detention
• Cut corporate support divestment campaign
• Highlight worst of worst Expose and Close as
  well as other site fights such as Karnes
• Work with DWN to repeal 1996 MD laws
• Mandatory Detention
• Mandatory Detention Workshop
• Next Steps for TUFF

36
Join Detention Watch Network

• Why join?
• DWN is the only national coalition whose main
  focus is immigration detention and deportation
  issues.
• DWN focuses on its members it is member led,
  member driven, and member inclusive.
• DWN consistently creates useful and timely
  resources for members and the community, such as
  this webinar!
• To join go to http//detentionwatchnetwork.org/jo
  indwn or contact Ana Carrión at
  acarrion_at_detentionwatchnetwork.org

37
Questions and Answers

• To ask a question please click the hand with the
  green arrow. The facilitator will call on you
  when it is your turn. Due to time constraints we
  may not be able to get to everyones questions.
• In order to speak you must enter your audio pin

38
Turning Point History and Lessons Learned from
the '96 Immigration Laws
Thank you for joining us!

• Friday, June 22, 2012
• 2pm 330pm EDT