Clinton passed one of the most punitive immigration laws in history
During their two for one presidency, Clinton passed one of the most punitive immigration laws in history.
Since we're being told that Senator Clinton is running in part based on her experience in her husband's administration I'd like to briefly examine a few bills that the Clinton administration signed into law as that's part of the record she's running on.
In 1996 the Senate and House passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. Bill Clinton signed it into law on April 24, 1996.
AEDPA hurt citizens and immigrants alike. AEDPA severely restricted the appeals process for people on death row and curtailed judicial review making it easier for the government to execute people.
In the criminal contest AEDPA has been described as:
"a Draconian statute that prevents defendants even from challenging their convictions based on, for instance, strong new evidence of innocence, or a serious error of law on a question the Supreme Court has not yet directly addressed."
It’s clear that in our flawed criminal justice system with its obvious race and class bias that such a law would disproportionately harm the poor and minorities. Other than pandering to the right-wing there was little or not legitimate reason to pass such a bill and a principled stand by a Democrat would have been to veto it.
AEDPA also removed some of the existing legal processes for immigrants facing deportation and made it easier to deport people. It created mandatory detention prior to deportation. It broadened the types of crimes that could result in a deportation. Essentially it made it easier for the government to detain and deport people and made it harder for those same people to prove that they should be allowed to stay.
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility was also passed and signed into law in 1996. Along with AEDPA this law was supposed to have the effect of controlling illegal immigration and immigration fraud. In actuality they are both needlessly and pointlessly harsh and punitive laws that harm American families and make it harder to legally enter the United States.
The American Immigration Lawyers association has described some of the harshest provisions of both AEDPA and IIRIRA:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/3/449127/-
article is from 2008. article says she is running to the right on immigration, but as everyone knows, she is now the champion on immigration issues.
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