Ostensibly to decrease the number of crimes committed by deportable noncitizen offenders who have served their criminal justice sentence, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) recently proposed an enhanced immigration detention bill that would allow the Department of Homeland Security to detain such noncitizens indefinitely, with very little judicial oversight. The “Keep Our Communities Safe Act of 2011″ plays on our collective fears of the dangerous foreigner, the serious offender who presents a lifelong menace and should have been deported, or perhaps never been permitted to join us. It promises the safety we crave — at the expense of civil liberties and human sacrifice.
Smith has deftly used two terrible crimes to argue for the permanent detention of a host of noncitizens who are under an order of removal but cannot be removed if the “release would threaten the safety of any person and the alien has been convicted of one or more aggravated felonies.” Much of the debate surrounds criminal offenders who have served their criminal justice sanctions, though many other categories of noncitizens with no criminal background would also be swept up by the legislation and may experience long and indefinite detention. The legislation would permit judicial review only in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, a court already substantially overloaded with cases from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Anecdotes of tragic crimes never lead to rational policies but may wreak yet greater tragedy for those targeted.
