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 July 2007 Volume 19, No. 3(G)
Forced Apart
Families Separated and Immigrants Harmed by United StatesDeportation Policy 
 Acknowledgements............................................................................................................1
 
I. Summary.........................................................................................................................3
 
II. Recommendations..........................................................................................................8
 
To the President of the United States..............................................................................8
 
To the United States Congress........................................................................................8
 
To the Department of Homeland Security........................................................................9
 
To the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.....................................................9
 
To the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.............................................9
 
To Criminal Defense Attorneys........................................................................................9
 
III. Deportation Law Based on Criminal Convictions Before 1996.......................................10
 
Early History of the Deportation Power...........................................................................10
 
Crimes of Moral Turpitude and Aggravated Felonies......................................................11
 
IV. Deportation Law Based on Criminal Convictions After 1996..........................................16
 
Specific Crimes Rendering Non-Citizens Deportable......................................................18
 
Aggravated Felonies................................................................................................18
 
Crimes of Moral Turpitude......................................................................................22
 
Definitions Include Relatively Minor Crimes............................................................23
 
Elimination of Defenses to Deportation.........................................................................25
 
Elimination of 212(c) Waiver of Deportation.............................................................25
 
Limits on Withholding: Returns to Persecution........................................................30
 
Retroactive Effects.........................................................................................................31
 
Congressional Regrets...................................................................................................34
 
 V. National Statistics on Deportation for Crimes...............................................................38
 
 
 VI. US Deportation Policy Violates Human Rights..............................................................45
 
The Right to Raise Defenses to Deportation...................................................................45
 
Proportionality...............................................................................................................52
 
Family Unity...................................................................................................................57
 
Children’s Rights....................................................................................................67
 
Ties to a Country...........................................................................................................70
 
Length of Legal Residence.......................................................................................72
 
Legal Residence in the United States Since Childhood............................................73
 
Military Service........................................................................................................75
 
Training and Employment........................................................................................77
 
Protection from Return to Persecution for Refugees......................................................78
 
 VII. Conclusion: The Need for a Legislative Solution..........................................................82
 
 Appendix: A History of Human Rights Watch’s FOIA Request for Deportation Data............84
 
 
 
Human Rights Watch July 20071
 Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all of the immigrants, their children, spouses, parents, siblings,attorneys, social workers, and friends who generously and courageously shared their experiences with us for this report. We would also like to thank the immigration attorneys,criminal attorneys, immigrants’ rights advocates and organizations, judges, legislators, andgovernment officials who shared their expertise with us for this report.Alison Parker, senior researcher in the US Program of Human Rights Watch researched andwrote this report. The full report was edited by Jamie Fellner, director of the US Program atHuman Rights Watch; Lois Whitman, director of the Children’s Rights Division; Bill Frelick,director of the Refugee Policy Program; Dinah PoKempner, general counsel; and Ian Gorvin,consultant in the Program Office. Also at Human Rights Watch, Ashoka Mukpo and KerametReiter, US Program Associates, provided invaluable research and production assistance.Layout and production were coordinated by Andrea Holley and Ashoka Mukpo.For their contributions to our research, we would especially like to acknowledge thefollowing people and organizations. In Arizona: the Florence Project (Ashley Kaper andVictoria Lopez); in Chicago: the Cambodian Association of Illinois (Nil Samorn), Centro SinFronteras (Emma Lozano), Coalition of Asian African European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois (Dale Asis), Centro Romero (Daisy Fuñez), Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and RefugeeRights (Joshua Hoyt and Fred Tsao), Latinos Progresandos (Luis Guitierrez, Laura Pichardo),Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Council (Oscar Chacon, Mary Meg McCarthy, SaraRose Weinman), Lisa Palumbo, Esq.; in Florida: the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center; inLos Angeles: Siu Ming Cheer, Esq., Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles,Homies Unidos (Silvia Beltran, Rocio Santacruz, Will Colely), Khmer Girls in Action; inMassachusetts: Dan Kanstroom; in San Francisco: ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project (CeciliaWang, Esq.), and the law firm of Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP; in New York:the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project (Judy Rabinovitz), Families for Freedom (Aarti Shahaniand Subash Kateel), and the Immigrant Defense Project of the New York State DefendersAssociation.The following individuals also contributed to this report: Joshua Franco (Chapter VI); probono counsel Paul Kemnitzer and Lauren Aronson Teitelbaum of Sidley and Austin (figure 7);Gloria Borges, Lin Chan, and Jayashri Srikantiah of the Stanford Immigrants Rights Clinic(Chapter VI); John Schaefer (Chapter V), Human Rights Watch associate Lee Anne
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