Criminal Justice Reforms In An Era of Mass Deportation

On May 4, 2017, the Harvard Law School’s Fair Punishment Project, the Immigrant Defense Project, and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center released a report “The Promise of Sanctuary Cities and the Need for Criminal Justice Reforms in An Era of Mass Deportation.” The report urges city leaders who want to protect immigrants to act swiftly to end harmful criminal justice practices that criminalize poverty and send immigrants into the deportation pipeline.

Local criminal justice policies, such as vagrancy laws and cash bail requirements, endanger vulnerable immigrant populations and undercut the promise of “sanctuary” cities, according to the report.

The report proposes eight commonsense reforms that local jurisdictions can adopt to protect the promise of sanctuary cities, including ending all local collusion with ICE, the elimination of cash bail, and the decriminalization of certain low-level infractions.

About the partners:

Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) www.ilrc.org
Since 1979, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) has stood at the forefront of defending the rights of the entire immigrant community, regardless of legal status, prior contact with the criminal justice system, or income. Over thirty
years ago, ILRC pioneered “crim-imm” work in the state of California through its trainings and manuals dedicated to raising the standard of practice for the defense of immigrants in criminal proceedings.

Fair Punishment Project www.fairpunishment.org
The Fair Punishment Project uses legal research and educational initiatives to ensure that the U.S. justice system is fair and accountable. As a joint initiative of Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice and its Criminal Justice Institute, we work to highlight the gross injustices resulting from prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective defense lawyering, and racial bias, and to highlight the unconstitutional use of excessive punishment.