'War on Crime' Targets Immigrants - Tom Barry
May 16, 2009
By Tom Barry
Prior to the creation of Homeland Security in 2003, there was little intersection between immigration enforcement and criminal law enforcement. The 1996 laws did establish the legal framework for the increased merger of criminal and immigration law enforcement. But it wasn't until the Bush administration, especially after Sept. 11, that the collaboration between immigration authorities with local law enforcement and federal law enforcement agencies became common. As a result, law enforcement agencies are enforcing immigration law, and immigration agencies are enforcing criminal law.
The 'war on crime' over the past four decades has given rise to a vast prison complex that holds over 2.3 million inmates-making the United States the world largest jailor. Paralleling and overlapping this citizen prison complex is a rapidly expanding noncitizen prison complex. Immigrants have become the latest victims of the country's 'severity revolution.'
Americas Program, Center for International Policy
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'War on Crime' Targets Immigrants - Tom Barry
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By Tom Barry Prior to the creation of Homeland Security in 2003, there was little intersection between immigration enforcement and criminal law enforcement. The 1996 laws did establish the legal framework for the increased merger of criminal and immigration law...
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