Twenty Year Anniversary of IIRIRA
It is an anniversary of sorts today. On September 30, 1996, the U.S. Congress enacted the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), dramatically changing U.S. immigration policy and setting in motion a massive expansion of the detention and deportation system by more tightly linking the criminal justice system to the federal immigration system. These laws not only criminalized immigrants, but created programs like 287g, establishing agreements to give local law enforcement agencies federal immigration authority. The results have been nothing less than dramatic for immigrants and their communities.
Courtesy of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Asian Law Caucus
KJ
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