Clinton signs IIRIRA, stripping judicial review and mandating deportation without a hearing

President Bill Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act on September 30, 1996, the most sweeping overhaul of deportation law since 1952. IIRIRA created expedited removal — allowing DHS to deport noncitizens without a hearing or immigration judge review — imposed mandatory detention on broad categories of immigrants, expanded the definition of deportable offenses to include minor crimes, and dramatically curtailed federal courts' jurisdiction to review deportation orders. The law eliminated case-by-case discretion that immigration judges had previously used to weigh equities in individual cases.