VI. Conclusion

In 1996, when Congress passed the harshest immigration laws in decades, its attention was focused on deporting non-citizens who were involved in serious, violent crimes. What is less clear is whether Congress understood that the sweeping laws it passed would affect people involved in minor non-violent criminal conduct, and that those laws would be applied not only to undocumented persons, but also to those who had been living legally in the United States, in many cases for decades.

The data analyzed in this report show that irrespective of what Congress intended, legally present non-citizens are being deported most often for non-violent offenses, after duly serving their criminal sentences. In fact, one-fifth of all deportations made in the 12 years the laws have been in effect have been of legally present non-citizens. And, because these deportations are mandatory and happen in a summary fashion, there are almost no checks on whether they make sense.

In a time of fiscal crisis, the facts presented here raise the question whether Congress made the right choice in marshalling ICE's enforcement resources ($2.2 billion in 2007) to focus on minor non-violent offenses and legally present non-citizens, not least because these deportations raise serious human rights concerns. In fact, due to the deportations on criminal grounds described in this report, we estimate that at least 1 million family members, including husbands, wives, sons, and daughters, have been separated from loved ones since 1997. The secrecy surrounding these deportations and the egregious deficiencies in ICE data management may help to explain why there has been little attention paid to ensuring ICE does not violate the rights of non-citizens during deportations, or to ensuring that ICE's budget is well spent. Now, with more detailed information, the US government can take another look at whether legally present non-citizens who have already served their criminal punishments should be subjected to the additional penalty of deportation with few safeguards for their rights. Human Rights Watch urges Congress and the Executive to take that second look.