Posted on 01/31/2002 6:42:22 PM PST by usadave
Immigration defense lawyers and immigrants’ rights groups are calling for the repeal of a provision in an immigration law that calls for the deportation of foreign nationals with three felony convictions.
National and regional authorities on immigration met last week on South Padre Island for a seminar dealing with the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996 and criminal convictions and their effect on immigrants.
Immigration rights groups and immigration officials said hundreds of immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley have been deported under the auspices of the 1996 law.
"It has affected legal residents and their families tremendously," said Benigno Peña, executive director of the South Texas Immigration Council. "We have seen a lot of cases."
These deportations, Peña said, create great financial and emotional burden on families who usually are already an integral part of society, who pay taxes, and whose children are often U.S. citizens.
Peña, executive director of the South Texas Immigration Council, an immigration rights group with offices in McAllen, Harlingen, Brownsville and Matamoros, said his offices have represented about 150 cases since the law passed in 1996.
"That’s just the tip of the iceberg," Peña said. "We believe we’ve represented only five percent of all the cases in the Rio Grande Valley."
Peña said about 80 percent of immigrants lack legal representation when taken to an immigration judge.
"The most common cases involve people who get convicted of DUI (driving under the influence) and possession of controlled substances," he said.
Peña believes the law is too drastic because it’s retroactive and applies even to those who have served a sentence or paid court-ordered fines for previous convictions.
"Even if they are rehabilitated or shown remorse, or even if a criminal court forgives them," Peña said. "They have already paid to society, but immigration (INS) doesn’t care about that."
Art Moreno, a spokesman for INS Harlingen District, which covers seven counties in South Texas, said 1,666 removals in fiscal year 2001 and 347 removals during the first three months of fiscal year 2002. The figures include legal and illegal immigrants.
"Many have been convicted, done time in prison and before release, got detained and put on removal procedures," Moreno said. "A few have been administrative cases of people who entered illegally into the country."
Moreno said INS is only doing its job as mandated by Congress. "We’re a nation of laws and we have done nothing but obey the law."
Moreno said many of the removals include drug traffickers, alien smugglers, robberies and murder, adding that INS looks at each case on an individual basis.
"Any foreign national convicted of a felony is subject to removal," he said.
Lisa Brodyaga, another immigrant lawyer with Refugio del Rio Grande in San Benito, a camp for political refugees and people seeking asylum, said several measures implemented in the 1996 law are unconstitutional.
"It (the law) went way too far," Brodyaga said. "Many of its provisions should be repealed because they are unconstitutional."
Brodyaga said the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans, which covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, ruled last June that it was almost certainly unconstitutional to hold people indefinitely because no country would take them.
Brodyaha noted that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled that DWI, driving while intoxicated, isn’t a crime of violence but some INS cases have cited DWI convictions as a basis to remove legal residents under the provision. Brodyaga also said that the 10th Circuit Court in Denver ruled DWIs could be considered a crime of violence.
"They (DWI) aren’t grounds for deportation," Brodyaga said. "It’s not a crime of violence because you don’t intend to use force."
Brodyaga said the law does not address DWI convictions when it was enacted in 1996 and charged that the INS took it upon itself to include DWI convictions under the provision.
Telma Garcia, an immigration lawyer who has been dealing with immigration issues for the past 22 years, said the 1996 law is devastating for many families.
"It affects families, especially all people who aren’t U.S. citizens," Garcia said. "They realized they messed up and ask for a second chance."
Garcia said a misdemeanor, such as a minor assault charge, is considered a deportable offense. If a husband or wife slaps his or her spouse under the Family Violence Act, it may be considered an aggravated felony, Garcia said.
"It’s creating hardships for the children and spouses when the father is deported because it separates them," Garcia said.
"Talk to your congressman," he urged, "and see if they change the law through Congress."
Sounds good to me.
Oughta ship 'em out on the first offense.
Foreign nationals living in the United States are allowed three felony convictions before deportation? I say one felony conviction and you're deported and banned for life from ever legally re-entering the United States.
A new group: Non-American Felons for Eternal American Citizenship Rights.
What about the families and the victims of the crimes these guys commit against US citizens? Oh, that's right, we don't count.
Who the hell are these Immigration defense lawyers? They're the ones who should be deported! Who are these people? Three DWI's? Or worse? Gimme a break!
Even for a "misdemeanor". Who needs this? There are plenty of honest immigrants to take their places. Why bother with these people? If they're so worried about their families coming apart, they can all move back to their native land.
The problem we have is with the idiots who defend these incorrigibles. There ought to be a law.
At the rate we're giving it away, it'll belong to the illegal immigrants, soon.
Moreno said many of the removals include drug traffickers, alien smugglers, robberies and murder....
Hardly the backbone of American society. Why 3 felonies? Deport them if they bat their eyes 3 times.
The only ones deported have committed serious crimes, the pro-illegal immigration side wants us forced to accept any kind of low-life type at all. It takes 3 drunk driving convictions to be deported ----they should be deported for much less than that. Driving without insurance should be a deportable offense.
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