| US Law Denounced As Cruel |
By BBC Caribbean
July 20, 2007
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| Advocacy group Human Rights Watch says there are various reasons why the United States should end the routine deportation of migrants who have committed crimes. |
It cites one of the more important reasons as the fact that an estimated 1.6 million children and spouses in the US have been separated from family members forced to leave the country under toughened 1996 immigration laws.
According to the rights organisation the |
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| separations have taken a toll on families who've sold homes, lost jobs, or been thrown into financial turmoil. |
| It's lobbying members of Congress in a bid to have struck down, the mandatory deportation of legal immigrants convicted of a criminal offence. |
| Alison Parker, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch in Washington, says there are various reasons why the practice should be stopped. |
| "The point is that these people have connections to the United States including ownership of businesses, long-standing legal presence in the country, payment of taxes for decades," Ms Parker told BBC Caribbean. |
| She said their rehabilitation since they had committed their crimes should be taken into consideration, along with the fact that so many had served in the US military. |
| The Human Rights Watch official says these people should be given a hearing "so that they can remain in the US if their connections to the country are strong." |
| Alison Parker authored an 88-page report on the matter, in which she points out that more than 670 thousand non-citizen immigrants were deported under the controversial law since 1997. |
| The report which describes the legislation as cruel in their rigidity and senseless, points out that some 65 percent of those deported had been convicted of non-violent crimes. |
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