Congress expands deportation rules affecting immigrant communities of color

President Bill Clinton signs the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act on September 30, 1996. The law expands deportation grounds, creates expedited removal, and makes immigration penalties more severe for many noncitizens. The statute is not written as a race law, but immigration enforcement has heavily affected Latino, Caribbean, Asian, African, and other communities of color. The law becomes one of the foundations of the modern deportation system. Immigration policy functions as a major racial and national-origin sorting system in American civic life.