The Rise of 'Crimmigration'

At a conference organized by the Institute of Justice in Journalism this week, I attended a presentation by César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, law professor at the University of Denver and author of the book Crimmigration Law. The term crimmigration, coined by legal scholar Julie Stumpf in 2006, refers to the complex nexus of immigration policy and policing that emerged in the U.S. after 1980. In his book, García explores the rise and consequences of this phenomenon, chronicling how a series of legislations stitched together criminal and immigration law practices, creating the current Frankenstein-like system that incentivizes immigrant incarceration.

First, some Crimmigration 101: The first couple of these laws cropped up during the Reagan administration; subsequent ones were enacted with the blessings of both the Republican and Democratic presidents that followed. Some explicitly addressed drug crime, and others, immigration. But they all sort of did both, leading to more overlap in the roles of law enforcement and immigration officers and greater coordination between them. They also introduced and expanded a broad category of criminal activity called "aggravated felony,” which for non-citizens can lead to immediate deportation (even for offenses like gambling or possession of anti-anxiety pills or small amounts of marijuana). Finally, these laws authorized pre-trial and mandatory detention—and reimbursed local and county governments for imprisoning immigrants.