Immigration Article of the Day: Deportation Cases and Legislation by Lauren Gilbert

“Deportation Cases and Legislation” ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LATINOS & LATINAS IN CONTEMPORARY POLITICS, LAW, & SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, 2012 LAUREN GILBERT, St. Thomas University School of Law

ABSTRACT: This primer on deportation law, cases, and legislation, provides a brief overview of deportation law since the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. It reviews how IIRIRA reconfigured immigration law, altering the basic framework under which persons were excluded and deported to focus on inspection and admission rather than entry. It also examines the expansion of the grounds of deportability for persons with criminal convictions. It then summarizes some of the most important deportation cases of the 21st century, including INS v. St. Cyr, Zadvydas v. Davis, and Padilla v. Kentucky. It examines recent developments regarding the Supreme Court’s consideration of persons charged as deportable for having committed “aggravated felonies.” It concludes with a discussion of comprehensive immigration reform, concluding that there has not been the political will to bring about comprehensive reform, and that lukewarm and last-minute efforts at such reform underscore a recurring paradox in American politics: the Democratic leadership’s recognition of the importance of the Latino/a vote coupled with a reluctance to prioritize issues of importance to Latino/as in a timely and meaningful fashion.

KJ