GRSJ224/The Injustice in Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the United States

Introduction

The United States (U.S) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS).. ICE's mission is to protect America from cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety. Their mission is executed through the use of over 400 federal statutes and focus on smart immigration enforcement, the prevention of terrorism, and combating the illegal movement of goods and people.

ICE came into existence following the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, where the government decided to restructure its handling of investigation and management of immigration and related activity worldwide. The idea was to better protect the United States from terrorist and security threats, thus, resulting in the creation of the DHS in 2003. The two operational divisions within ICE consist of (1) Enforcement and Removal (ERO) and (2) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). ERO primarily handles enforcement matters relating to non-citizens in the U.S, such as apprehending those that are unlawfully present or have violated the law and ERO has the power to detain and proceed to remove non-citizens. HSI is the investigative arm of DHS and focuses on carrying out transnational criminal investigations and protecting national security.

Criticisms

ICE manages immigration detention. Those that are held in custody are referred to as "detainees" while they are in fact, prisoners (and treated as such), held in federal, private, or local penitentiaries while awaiting legal proceedings or deportation. Between 1995 and 2007, the number of detainees increased from 6,000 to greater than 27,000. The main reason for the increase in detainees arose from anti-immigrant laws in 1996. These laws were signed by former U.S President Bill Clinton and had increased immigrant detention in two major ways. Firstly, the new laws drastically expanded the range of crimes for which a legal resident is subject to deportation and mandatory detention. Secondly, the law stripped immigrants of the right to request a waiver of deportation from an immigration judge. Prior to this law, half of relevant cases were approved for waivers of deportation. While ICE reinforces the idea that these detainees are criminals, the statistics are contradicting. The Denver post reported that "a growing share of those deported committed no crimes while in the United States- 53 percent this year, up from 37 percent in 2001".

Innumerable studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit serious crimes than native born Americans. These studies have also shown that high rates of immigration are related to lower rates of violent crimes and property crime. This was found to be true for both legal and unauthorized immigrants and regardless of birth country or level of education. This indicates that the majority of immigrants do not constitute the legal definition of a 'criminal'. Therefore, for the purpose of fighting crime, immigration policies do not prove to be effective..

Framing Discussion of Immigration

Immigration policy is commonly shaped by fear and stereotype rather than empirical evidence. This has resulted from the law defining immigrants more and more as criminals or threats. Deportation has become punishment for even minor offences and policies that attempt to end unauthorized immigration to be increasingly punitive and less rational or practical. The labels of "illegal immigrants", "illegal aliens" and "undocumented immigrants" have an ideological meaning that holds social and legal implications. These labels produce categorization effects as it communicates a certain attitude from the communicator and in turn, influences the recipient, who is now persuaded to take certain policy positions. This has also been linked to the social identity theory, where the immigrants now fall into the out-group with whom the recipient wants to dissociate themselves with. When framing immigrants with such negative connotations such as, "illegal immigrants" rather than "asylum seekers", enforcement laws become the only option. By defining them as criminals, it reinforces the need for punishment or removal when this may rarely be the case. Solutions to this injustice, could therefore begin with the reframing of immigration debates.

Intersectional Analysis

In the report "The Criminalization of Immigration in the United States", immigrants are described as a group that tends to be highly motivated, goal-driven and have little to gain from committing unlawful acts. They cite a public policy expert, Michael Tonry who says "First-generation economic immigrants are self-selected risk takers who leave their homes, families, and languages to move to a new country to improve their and their children’s lives. They have good reasons to work hard, defer gratifications, and stay out of trouble. This indicates a need to further study space and the intersections of society and culture.

Impact on Immigrant Women

Not only do immigrants struggle with the political and legal aspects of moving to the U.S, but they must also deal with other factors that make them more vulnerable. Culture is naturally one of the obstacles they must tackle as immigrants in the U.S. However, when race, class, education level, gender, and immigration status intersect for women of colour, there is a clear need for reform such that groups are not further marginalized in the process. For example, the Immigration and Nationality Act contained marriage fraud provisions under which, a person who immigrated to the U.S to marry a citizen or permanent resident of the U.S was required to remain "properly married" for two years before applying for permanent residency. This law led to an oppression against immigrant women who were now unable to leave abusive relationships for the fear of being deported. Thus, to reform the immigration system, each dimension of the identity of immigrants must be analyzed for how their identities intersect and form an impact on each other.