Law Students

Criminal Aliens

By Andrea

From the Houston Chronicle:

It must seem like no one could ever argue with this. And I'm not going to. But this editorial is an example of the well-meaning but problematic approach a lot of people take toward detention and raid issues: There are bad criminal aliens, who deserve no pity, and sympathetic exploited women with babies who are swept up in raids just trying to provide for their families. Never the twain shall meet.

What if the "criminal alien" is a working parent with young children? What if her terrible, deportable crime is an old drug possession charge? Well, it is. Quite a lot.

Now, like I said, I'm not going to argue against the basic idea of having criminal grounds of deportability. Or that there aren't some really violent criminals who are also noncitizens and can thus easily be removed from American society. Of course there are. I just want you to know who's really getting deported.

I'm no expert. I've been to jail five times. I've answered the phones every day for less than three months. But that means I've talked to more than a hundred people, probably, about their criminal histories. None have included murder or rape, or really any of the dramatic crimes you can imagine.

The charges I see over and over again that are leading to deportations are drug possession, drug possession with intent to distribute, simple assault, simple assault marked as a domestic incident, and even more drug possession. (The explanation of why you might get deported for a simple assault is a little too long for this post, and also makes me mad.) I see a lot of probation and court-ordered programming, and not a lot of hard jail time.

Criminal aliens sound like scary people. And sure, they're not saints. But an awful lot, they're people who were born in another country who got an addiction, and then, they thought, got another chance. I wish we could really give it to them. I think there are ways to enforce the laws so that they get a little more time. But in the end, we'd just need some new laws.

Real reason for this post: Met a former immigration judge at a career panel on Friday. He seemed to think it was highly reasonable that I could become a judge some day. Have been rehashing all my Fall '07 thoughts about being a government lawyer. This will probably never end. Stay tuned.

Full post as published by Peanut Butter Burrito on November 24, 2008 (boomark / email).