The “Legality” of Immigrant Deportability in the United States: Interrogating Crimmigration in the Age of Trump

• In Event: Immigration and Justice Issues II

Abstract

American politicians (particularly of Conservative bent) have historically deployed and mined the discourse of immigrant “illegality” for electoral benefits. In modern times, this practice was exacerbated by Donald Trump, who actively created a moral panic around undocumented immigrants as a successful strategy to win the Presidency. In 2020, under his Presidency, INA §208 was established to expand the scope of Title 8 on expedited removal of illegal entrants. The enforcement of this law and of Title 42 accelerated the refoulement and prosecution of asylum seekers, leading to the deportation and incarceration of tens of thousands of immigrants, mostly for breach of unlawful entry and reentry. This places refugee claimants outside the “pale of law;” a practice which obfuscates the distinction between immigration law and criminal law, and has become common since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States (Kanstroom, 2004). This paper interrogates the politics and “legality” of asylum laws under Trump's Presidency, in light of the international legal framework for the protection of refugees; particularly, the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugee (1951) and the United States Refugee Act (1980).

Authors

• Carol I. Njoku, University of San Francisco

• Ifeanyi Ezeonu, Brock University, Ontario, Canada