I see a lot of well-meaning people emphasizing that most immigrants aren’t criminals. And whiles studies validate this, I think it’s also worth asking ourselves if we really think people with criminal histories should be deported.
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There is no statute of limitation for deportation. You can be deported for a conviction from 70 years ago. Even if you have never been arrested again. Even if the conviction was for a non-violent crime.
Deportation after a criminal conviction is double punishment. ICE typically lets people complete their sentence (even if it’s many years in prison) and then, once they have “paid their debt to society,” deport them.
We know that Black and brown men are disproportionately criminalized. And we know that people with criminal histories are targeted for deportation by both D and R administrations. Why are we comfortable with the mass deportation of this group of people?
If we think of “us” as a community beyond just US borders, why would deporting people with criminal histories make anyone safer? Instead of trying to solve societal problems that lead to what we consider criminal behavior, it simply passes the buck.
Anti-immigrant politicians won’t be satisfied simply by deporting people with convictions, they’re only using them as an excuse to calcify the borders and exclude and deport everyone deemed too foreign.
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