Immigration Law Vs Criminal Law Essay

To an outsider, criminal law and immigration law appear to be distinct. Both areas of law govern the relationship between two subjects, in this case, the criminal and the government or an immigrant and the government. Though these two areas of law appear distinct and have their own unique characteristics, over the course of time the two have become rather close and have even overlapped in numerous ways. In a text written about criminal law and immigration law, the author brings up the concept of crimmigration. Stumpf illustrates the process of criminalizing immigration law by saying that “Immigration law today is clothed with so many attributes of criminal law that the line between them has grown indistinct” (Stumpf, p. 376). This is illustrating

Two unique forms of law that were intended to handle different situations are starting to resemble each other very closely. This brings up an issue within the topic of detention and deportation. If the procedures, people involved, and laws put in place are very different for each area of law, then merging them means that the laws and actors in criminal law are not designed to perform the purpose of immigration law. Therefore, criminalizing immigration law is going to have direct and negative impacts on undocumented immigrants because instead of being treated civilly, they are being treated and classified as criminals regardless of what crime they commit, and they are also being caused more harm than the harm they can do to society. In criminal and immigration law, there are different players designed to meet the needs of each area. Criminal law involves law enforcement, while immigration law usually depends on immigration and customs enforcement. Each type of law enforcement specializes in certain types of people, such as

citizen, but unlike U.S. citizens, migrants must suffer from being placed in detention. The issue being raised here is that even though there are many aspects that merge the two together, there can be an overlap at times that has negative impacts. In criminal law, defendants have multiple rights that they are entitled to, but this isn’t the case for migrants. Migrants that are being held in detention awaiting their trials must defend themselves because, even though they are being treated as criminals, the rights of a criminal don’t pass over to them. The article written on crimmigration conveys that “Noncitizens in immigration proceedings do not enjoy the protections of the Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment. They generally do not have the right to appointed counsel at government expense or the protection of the privilege against self-incrimination” (Stumpf, p. 393). Migrants who mistakenly commit a small crime can be arrested, picked up by I.C.E., placed in detention for being undocumented, and then put on trial without any kinds of rights because of their immigration status. Throughout this entire process, if at any moment they are mistreated or abused, they have no legal representation to assist them. Being left without legal representation and having to fend for themselves is difficult because some migrants can’t navigate the language, let alone the U.S. court system. Criminalizing