A short story about deportations and "violent criminals." Last year I represented a man in deportation proceedings who was brought to the country as a toddler. He had been in the country for so long he was able to get his green card through the amnesty program under Reagan.
He was a poor Salvadoran immigrant and like many poor Salvadoran immigrants, he grew up in a neighborhood that was filled with gang members. One day, he and his friends get into a fight with some of the other kids on the block & someone throws a cinder block through a car window.
Everyone scattered and the police arrest my client. He is overcharged & bullied by the judge into pleading nolo contendere to 2 counts of assault w/ a weapon likely to produce great bodily injury. He didn't throw the block but he also refused to snitch. Those were strikes 1 & 2.
After he got out, he kept his nose clean, worked, had 3 USC kids, and took care of his LPR mother and LPR sister both of whom have serious disabilities. About 2 years ago, he learns that his wife is cheating on him. He is upset so he goes out, gets drunk, and starts texting her.
In the texts he says some things that he shouldn't have. He threatens her numerous times. She calls the police and he is arrested again, just the second time in his life. He is charged with & convicted of making criminal threats, his third felony conviction.
His public defender is able to pursue a motion to get him out from his life imprisonment due to California's horrific 3 strike rule but the DA is unwilling to bend on the charge. After he serves a year in jail, ICE puts a hold on him and places him into immigrant detention.
You see, what is and what is not a "crime of violence" is actually quite ambiguous under the law. The threat of violence, even if there was never any intent or attempt to engage in actual violence, is sufficient. His text messages were, categorically, a crime of violence.
To make matters worse, if you are convicted of a crime of violence and sentenced to more than a year in prison for that crime of violence, you are labeled an "aggravated felon" and become ineligible for most forms of immigration relief.
Now this man, who was a green card holder for 20+ years, has 3 USC kids, and was the main support system for his disabled mother and sister (both LPRs) has been deported to a country where he knows nobody and is a walking target for Salvadoran gang members.
As Professor Bryan Stevenson says: nobody is as bad as their worst moment. This is especially true for black and brown folk who have been systemically targeted and over-policed in this country for their entire existence.
I have to imagine that if my client were a white man growing up in a white neighborhood he would have gotten a slap on the wrist for being involved in the fight. Boys will be boys and kids do stupid things.
Without those first two strikes, he likely would have gotten a much more lenient sentence for making the threats against his wife. He would have paid a fine or even spent a few days in prison. He would be out now & moving on. Now he may never see his children again.
He may well be killed by some gang member who thinks he has money because he has an American accent. People like my client are the "violent criminals" that every single Democratic presidential candidate has unequivocally stated that they would deport.
It is antithetical to our movement to (correctly) identify the criminal justice system as broken and racist while simultaneously leveraging its outcomes to justify deportations. Either you believe what you are selling or you don't. You can't have it both ways.
