Asian American Research Journal

“Crimmigration,” coined in 2006 by Professor Juliet Stumpf, refers to the merging ofcriminal and immigration law in the United States, particularly after 1980. Crimmigrationincludes both immigration-related punishments for non-American citizens convicted of crimesand immigration enforcement’s growing resemblance to criminal law enforcement. This paperexplores the historical development of crimmigration through laws such as the 1996Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and Illegal Immigration Reform and ImmigrantResponsibility Act, as well as the massive expansion in ICE detention in recent decades. Itargues that Asian Americans have been disproportionately impacted by crimmigration due totheir historical marginalization at the intersection of non-citizen status, poverty, and violence.“Stuck in the middle” of the criminalization of immigration and unjust punishment ofimmigrants with criminal convictions, Asian American communities are uniquely impacted by acrimmigration system that marginalizes those seen as foreign and “other.”