EXPLORE MODULEs
We’ve created excerpts from longer interviews with leading experts featured in Harsh Legacy on key topics in immigration law and policy.
These curated versions will enable you to go deeper into these topics.
Click on the modules below to learn more.
And check back — we’ll be adding new topics regularly.
Muzaffar Chishti on IIRIRA and the Political and Historical Context of the 1990s
Muzaffar Chishti, Senior Fellow, Migration Policy Institute
Muzaffar Chishti places IIRIRA in the political and historical context of the 1990s, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, California’s Proposition 187, the 1994 congressional elections, and growing pressure for tougher immigration enforcement. Drawing on his firsthand involvement in the legislative debate, he recounts the “split the bill” strategy that protected legal immigration while allowing far-reaching enforcement provisions to move forward, as well as the unsuccessful effort to create a basis for a presidential veto. Chishti then traces some of IIRIRA’s lasting consequences—including 287(g) agreements, the three- and ten-year bars, expanded deportability, and restrictions on judicial review—and reflects on the lessons of compromise, advocacy, and political engagement.
Phil Schrag on the Legislative Battle over IIRIRA’s Asylum Provisions
Philip Schrag, Professor and Co-Director, Center for Applied Legal Studies, Georgetown Law School
Philip Schrag recounts the legislative battle over IIRIRA’s asylum provisions, including efforts to defeat a proposed 30-day deadline for filing asylum applications and to soften the law’s expedited removal provisions. Drawing on his direct involvement in the Committee to Preserve Asylum, he describes how advocates organized across party lines and ultimately helped secure a one-year filing deadline with exceptions and a lower screening standard for asylum seekers facing expedited removal. Schrag also considers how asylum processing could be made fairer today, arguing for adequate adjudication, access to hearings without detention, and restoration of meaningful protections for people seeking refuge at the border.
Lucas Guttentag on How IIRIRA Restricts Judicial Review of Immigration Enforcement
Lucas Guttentag, Martin R. Flug Lecturer in Law, Yale Law School; Professor of the Practice of Law, Stanford Law School; Former Advisor to DHS and DOJ
Lucas Guttentag explains how IIRIRA fundamentally transformed immigration enforcement by restricting judicial review, expanding mandatory detention and the aggravated felony definition, reducing discretion, imposing the three- and ten-year bars, and creating expedited removal. Drawing on his experience leading the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and litigating INS v. St. Cyr, he examines how the courts responded to efforts to limit review of deportation orders and detention. The module highlights IIRIRA’s lasting effects on fairness and due process and why Guttentag believes meaningful reform requires changes to the law itself.
Manny Vargas on the Immediate Human Impact of IIRIRA
Manny Vargas, Senior Counsel, Immigrant Defense Project
Manny Vargas describes the immediate human impact of the 1996 immigration laws through the story of a longtime lawful permanent resident who went to immigration court expecting to seek relief but instead faced mandatory detention and possible deportation. He explains how IIRIRA reduced immigration judges’ ability to consider family ties, length of residence, rehabilitation, and other individual circumstances, and how the law imposed severe immigration consequences on people with criminal convictions, including conduct that predated the law. Vargas also traces the legal and advocacy response, including challenges to retroactive application and efforts to ensure that noncitizens understand the immigration consequences of decisions made in the criminal legal system.
Don Kerwin on How IIRIRA Created Enforcement Authorities That Shape Today’s Immigration System
Don Kerwin, Legal Scholar and Policy Expert; Senior Ignatian Migration Fellow, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA
Don Kerwin describes IIRIRA as a pivotal law that created many of the enforcement authorities that continue to shape the immigration system today. He explains the law’s three- and ten-year unlawful-presence bars, their impact on mixed-status families, the expansion of summary removal, mandatory detention, and the reduction of opportunities for individualized relief. Kerwin connects these provisions to contemporary enforcement and argues that understanding the 1996 law is essential to understanding how the present system developed and what may need to change.
Alina Das on How IIRIRA Intertwined the Criminal Legal System with the Immigration System
Alina Das, Professor of Law and Co-Director, Immigrant Rights Clinic, NYU School of Law
Alina Das examines how IIRIRA intertwined the criminal legal system with the immigration system, expanding the grounds of deportation and detention while eliminating many forms of relief and discretion. Through the experiences of her clients, she shows how even a single conviction can lead to detention, deportation, and permanent separation from family, often with limited opportunity for meaningful judicial review. Das also considers the broader constitutional consequences of restricting access to the federal courts and argues for legislative change to restore greater balance, fairness, and accountability to the immigration system.
Eric Schwartz on the Migration and Refugee Challenges in the Backdrop of IIRIRA
Eric Schwartz, Former Senior Director for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs and Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; Former Dean and currently Professor, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
Eric Schwartz reflects on the migration and refugee challenges confronting the Clinton administration, including Haitian and Cuban migration, Vietnamese refugees, Kurdish displacement, and the Golden Venture, and describes the difficult balance between immigration enforcement and humanitarian protection. Drawing on his experience inside government, he explains the debates over preserving due process, asylum protections, and judicial review as enforcement policies expanded. Schwartz also examines IIRIRA’s emphasis on enforcement, the growth of extraterritorial migration controls after September 11, and the continuing tension between border control, the rule of law, and the protection of refugees and migrants.