Document Type
Article
Publication Title
New York City Law Review
Abstract
It is now six years since Congress drastically changed the rules governing lawful permanent residents convicted of crime and established an extreme dual system of criminal law under which immigrants raised legally in this country from childhood can be deported summarily for crimes that did not even lead to a single day in jail. In the space of the last six years, thousands of lawful permanent residents have been deported without any opportunity to prove that they are rehabilitated, that their deportation would work an extreme hardship on their families, or even that their honorable service in the United States armed forces warrants the exercise of mercy. This Symposium, held in the Fall on 2000, provided an unusual opportunity to examine both the harshness of the laws and the multiple advocacy efforts at work to correct that harshness. At the time of this symposium, Congress was poised to make modest corrections to aspects of the 1996 laws. After years of criticism in the press and scholarly journals, the House had fast-tracked a bill, H.R. 5062, to cure some of the retroactive aspects of the law. The bill went straight from the back rooms of the Judiciary Committee to the full floor of the House and passed unanimously. It seemed well on its way to being signed into law. At the Symposium, speakers examined these legislative efforts and looked to the future when further reforms could be made.
First Page
3
Volume
4
Publication Date
2001
Recommended Citation
Nancy Morawetz,
Association of the Bar of the City of New York Symposium on Immigration and Criminal Law: Introduction,
4
New York City Law Review
3
(2001).
Available at:
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-articles/784
