The Creation of the Aggravated Felony Legal Category and the Punitive Turn in American Drug, Crime, and Immigration Policy

• In Event: Enforcing the Border: Criminalization, Fear and Detention in the Age of Punishment

Abstract

The “aggravated felony” distinction, first introduced in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 and expanded upon several times since, refers to a category of offenses for which non-citizens can be deported under immigration law. Aggravated felonies need not be “aggravated” nor “felonies,” but rather, encompass a broad range of crimes and misdemeanors, ranging from check fraud and simple drug possession to drug trafficking and murder. The evolution of this legal category, which is a leading cause of deportation for legal immigrants residing in the United States, is reflective of a punitive shift in drug, crime, and immigration policy. As an immigration provision first enacted with the aim of fighting drug trafficking and subsequently expanded to give immigration officials the power to severely punish (deport) non-citizens for any number of crimes, the aggravated felony distinction serves as a key example of the increasingly intertwined nature of these three policy areas. Furthermore, not only has this legal distinction increased the punitive capacity of immigration law, but it has also contributed to repressive drug law and criminal justice policy in the erosion of important rights and protections for drug offenders and other lawbreakers who are not U.S. citizens. Therefore, by tracing the development of the aggravated felony legal category, this paper aims to provide a more acute understanding of the intertwining and harshening of contemporary American drug, crime, and immigration policy.

Author

• Sarah Tosh, City University of New York