According to César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University, immigration law and criminal law have often merged to the detriment of the rights of those seeking to migrate to the United States. This development has a racial component.
However, this wasn't always the case. The detention and criminalization of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border was the exception, not the rule, until the 1990s. “It's no coincidence that immigration law became more criminalized precisely when the United States closed more legal pathways for Mexicans to immigrate legally. We can look at crime from a racialized perspective in the current context,” said César Cuauhtémoc García.
Similarly, immigration law has increasingly relied on a migrant's criminal record to determine whether an individual is imprisoned or deported. Between 1892 and 1984, approximately 14,000 people were barred from the U.S. due to a criminal conviction or a narcotics offense, while around 56,000 were deported for those reasons between 1908 and 1980. These figures, spanning nearly a century, highlight the stark differences compared to contemporary statistics. In fiscal year 2013 alone, ICE deported more than 216,000 people with criminal records.
Despite this, García maintains optimism about the possibility of improving the immigration system. “I see my role as being able to participate in making the United States legal system the best version of itself. As a teacher, it is a tremendous privilege to help train the next generation of lawyers and advocates who can work to reform the system that exists today.»
«If you want the sweet thrill of daily victories, immigration law isn’t for you,» added César Cuauhtémoc. “This is a job for people who believe that everyone who goes through the legal system deserves a fair chance. This speaks to the legitimacy of our legal system, and the quality of the process is just as important as the quality of the outcome.»
This news story was created from NBC News https://nbcnews.to/3E4VWXo