Lawfare
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Florida. (Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)
Imagine two immigrants: one, a recent entrant who used a fraudulent passport to gain admission; the other, a lawful permanent resident of 20 years who failed to update her address with the government. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) renders both “deportable” for their immigration offenses, despite their distinct immigration violations, and their different statuses and depth of ties to the United States. Their shared fate follows the formal terms of the INA, which specifies one, and only one, penalty for any immigration offense: deportation. As critics have argued, the INA lacks graduated sanctions, sanctions tailored to the severity of the offense or Shadow Sanctions for Immigration Violations