During the 106th Congress, numerous bipartisan bills were introduced in the House and the Senate that responded to this crisis. Both of these bills offered comprehensive reform on the issues of due process, judicial review, detention standards, refugee protection, and family unification. These bills would have repealed certain provisions of the 1996 laws and would have restored relief and waivers for certain long-term legal residents subject to deportation. H.R. 2999 would have provided very limited relief to certain permanent residents by changing some of the definitions of aggravated felonies for cancellation of removal purposes only. Make the punishment fit the crime.
Current laws punish legal immigrants out of proportion to their crimes.
Even worse, the laws have been interpreted to apply retroactively. As a result, thousands of legal immigrants face removal for offenses that occurred many years ago, some of which were not even deportable offenses at the time they occurred. Not changing the rules in the middle of the game. Deporting people many years later for crimes that were not deportable offenses when they were committed is unjust. Yet, the 1996 laws were written to apply retroactively.