Bob Filner: “Like my colleagues, I rise to say that we must stop deporting hard-working legal immigrants only because they committed…”

“Like my colleagues, I rise to say that we must stop deporting hard-working legal immigrants only because they committed a minor infraction years or even decades ago. We must stop hauling parents away in the middle of the night in front of their children and denying these people, now in detention, the most basic constitutional rights that we in America believe everyone should have. That is exactly what the 1996 law did. It redefined the term aggravated felony to cover virtually every crime ever committed. It was retroactive, covering misdemeanor crimes decades ago, and denied basic constitutional protections, such as bail and visitation rights.”