Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996

Aggravated Felonies as Grounds for Removal

An aggravated felony is a crime classified as of sufficient severity to warrant deportation of a noncitizen. IIRIRA is the most recent in a series of legislative acts aimed at deporting criminal aliens. Aggravated felonies were first designated in the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which included murder, drug trafficking, and firearms trafficking as grounds for removal. Next, the Immigration Act of 1990 specified that violent crimes resulting in sentences of more than 5 years were aggravated felonies.

After the first attack on the World Trade Center and the Oklahoma City bombing, the Antiterrorism and

Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) was passed in 1996, 5 months before the IIRIRA. The AEDPA expanded existing aggravated felonies to include gambling, transport for purpose of prostitution, alien smuggling, and passport or other document fraud. It created the aggravated felony designation for obstructing justice, perjury, bribery, commercial bribery, forgery, counterfeiting, and vehicle trafficking convictions with sentences of 5 years or more. The IIRIRA was passed in this climate of crackdowns on criminal aliens and the beginning of more stringent efforts to stop terrorism.

IIRIRA significantly expanded the definition of aggravated felonies for which an immigrant could be deported. Fifty new categories of crime, including shoplifting and driving while intoxicated, were added to prior aggravated felonies. Any noncitizens, including permanent resident aliens, were made subject to collateral penalties that affect immigration status. These penalties include removal from the United States and a lifetime ban on having legal status to be in the United States. An immigrant convicted of an aggravated felony is unable to plead on the basis of good moral character or any basis for cancellation of deportation. This collateral penalty has had a major impact on noncitizens because it was applied retroactively. In other words, an immigrant could have committed a crime many years ago and served time for it; if the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit became aware of this record, the immigrant could still be deported. In fact, thousands of immigrants have been designated as “criminal aliens” and deported because of a previously committed aggravated felony or on being released from prison after having served time for such an offense.

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