Study says immigration laws separate families
July 18, 2007 01:43 EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A human rights group charges that harsh immigration laws in the U-S have separated more than one and a-half million children and spouses from family members who've been deported.

A report by Human Rights Watch says separations throw families into financial turmoil, forcing them to sell their homes and costing them their jobs and businesses.

Congress toughened immigration laws in 1996, making legal and illegal immigrants deportable under an expanded list of what are termed "aggravated felonies."

The law also eliminated hearings in which judges could consider an immigrant's family, military service or possible persecution in their native country to stop deportation.

The Homeland Security Department reports that more than 672-thousand immigrants have been deported for crimes since the law passed, most of them for non-violent offenses.

Texas Congressman Lamar Smith says immigrants who violate the law forfeit their right to be in the U-S.


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