Human Rights Group Says 20 Years Of Immigrant Abuses Is Enough

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Image via Wikimedia Commons and is listed in the public domain.

The activist group Human Rights Watch has called on Congress to repeal provisions of an immigration bill passed twenty years ago. The human rights advocates argue the law has led to arbitrary detention, unjust deportations and families torn apart.

In April 1996 President Bill Clinton signed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which was designed to give law enforcement and the criminal justice system better means to prosecute terrorists and serious criminals. The bill included provisions that made it easier to detain and deport immigrants. It also introduced, for the first time, a “fast track” deportation scheme.

Five months later, the President signed into law another bill, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. It further expanded grounds for the detention and removal of immigrants, even including lawful permanent residents, who could now be deported for a wide range of minor or nonviolent offenses.

Human Rights Watch reports that these laws have made the situation for immigrants much worse. Many are kept in detention for long periods of time or removed without any meaningful opportunity to fight their deportation order.

Human Rights Watch has spent the last two decades documenting the personal stories of those affected by the harsh legislation.

“Antonio C. (pseudonym), a legal permanent resident from Ecuador, is just one current example. US authorities are detaining him for deportation on the basis of a 2005 drug conviction. He was brought to the US when he was a year old and has seven US citizen children, including a 3-year-old son with autism.

‘I grew up in a neighborhood in Queens that was basically drugs and fighting,’ he told Human Rights Watch. ‘And I messed up. But I paid for what I did and I learned my lesson. Now they are trying to take me away from my kids.’ “

The human rights group urges changes to the laws, including limiting mandatory detention and fast-track removals, which often deprive individuals of due process rights. The advocates also call for an end to policies that separate families, and thus cause immense heartache.

 

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David Zuther is a high school student currently living in Utah. He is interested in current affairs and believes in social justice, civil liberties and human rights. He is passionate about photography, debating and reading. Follow him on twitter for political news and commentary.