In the preceding sections we discussed the affirmative steps that the new Administration can take to strengthen civil rights and improve the status of minorities through education and training. In this section, we address current government policies that undermine minority families and communities and urge President Bush to chart a different course.
Inflexibly harsh and arbitrary criminal justice and immigration laws have devastated minority communities. Too many minority Americans are separated from their spouses and children due to lengthy mandatory prison terms for non-violent crimes, deportation for minor offenses committed decades ago, or incomprehensible rules and arbitrary determinations regarding immigration matters. Increased incarceration and deportation rates lead to an unacceptable number of one-parent households and the associated economic and social problems; to fragmentation of inner-city neighborhoods; and to the disintegration of family and community support systems.
Current policies on incarceration and deportation punish African-Americans and Hispanic Americans differently, and more harshly, than white Americans who commit identical wrongs. Minority citizens lose faith in a system of justice that, e.g., permits racial profiling by police and immigration officials, imposes harsher sentences on minority non-violent drug offenders, and permits vigilante justice along the U.S. border.
