Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996

Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996
Long title	Division C of "An Act making omnibus consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1997, and for other purposes".
Acronyms (colloquial)	IIRAIRA
Enacted by	the 104th United States Congress
Effective	April 1, 1997
Citations
Public law	Pub. L. 104–208 (text) (PDF)
Statutes at Large	110 Stat. 3009-546
Codification
Acts amended	Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952; Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996; Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994; Immigration Act of 1990; Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988
Titles amended	8 U.S.C.: Aliens and Nationality
U.S.C. sections amended	8 U.S.C. ch. 12, subch. I § 1101 et seq.; 8 U.S.C. ch. 12, subch. II § 1221 et seq.; 8 U.S.C. ch. 12, subch. II § 1324; 8 U.S.C. ch. 12, subch. II § 1363a;
Legislative history
	Introduced in the House as H.R. 3610 by C. W. Bill Young (R-FL) on June 11, 1996; Committee consideration by House Appropriations, Senate Appropriations, House Judiciary; Passed the House on June 13, 1996 (278–126, Roll call vote 247, via Clerk.House.gov); Passed the Senate on July 18, 1996 (72–27, Roll call vote 200, via Senate.gov, in lieu of S. 1894); Reported by the joint conference committee on September 28, 1996; agreed to by the House on September 28, 1996 (370–37, Roll call vote 455, via Clerk.House.gov) and by the Senate on September 30, 1996 (Agreed voice vote); Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on September 30, 1996;
United States Supreme Court cases
	List Immigration and Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289 (2001); Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001); Demore v. Kim, 538 U.S. 510 (2003); Fernandez-Vargas v. Gonzales, 548 U.S. 30 (2006); Vartelas v. Holder, 566 U.S. 257 (2012); Jennings v. Rodriguez, No. 15-1204, 583 U.S. ___ (2018); Pereira v. Sessions, No. 17-459, 585 U.S. ___ (2018); Nielsen v. Preap, No. 16-1363, 586 U.S. ___ (2019); Nasrallah v. Barr, No. 18-1432, 590 U.S. ___ (2020); Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam, No. 19-161, 591 U.S. ___ (2020); Niz-Chavez v. Garland, No. 19-863, 593 U.S. ___ (2021); Johnson v. Guzman Chavez, No. 19-897, 594 U.S. ___ (2021); Patel v. Garland, No. 20-979, 596 U.S. ___ (2022); Garland v. Gonzalez, No. 20-322, 596 U.S. ___ (2022); Johnson v. Arteaga-Martinez, No. 19-896, 596 U.S. ___ (2022); Biden v. Texas, No. 21-954, 597 U.S. ___ (2022); United States v. Texas, No. 22-58, 599 U.S. ___ (2023);

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA), is a law enacted as division C of the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997 which made major changes to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA). IIRAIRA's changes became effective on April 1, 1997.

Former United States President Bill Clinton asserted that the legislation strengthened "the rule of law by cracking down on illegal immigration at the border, in the workplace, and in the criminal justice system—without punishing those living in the United States legally". However, IIRAIRA has been criticized as overly punitive and intensifying border militarization. With IIRAIRA, all aliens, regardless of legal status, were liable to removal and it expanded types of transgressions that could lead to removal.

Proponents of the IIRAIRA contend the law was necessary to end loopholes present beforehand in US immigration policy, which undermined the immigration system. A major motivator behind IIRAIRA was to deter further illegal immigration into the US, but the success in achieving this has been mixed, with both an increase in deportation since IIRAIRA was enacted in 1996, from around 50,000 to over 200,000 by the beginning of the 2000s, and also in illegal immigration since the enactment of IIRAIRA.

Before IIRAIRA, nonimmigrants who overstayed their visas or violated their conditions of admission were required to pay a fine, but were not restricted from later adjusting status to that of a lawful permanent resident. Since IIRAIRA, a non-immigrant who overstays their visa by one day or longer is ineligible to renew their visa. If they overstay their visa by a period between 180 and 365 days, they face a 3-year bar to reentry while an alien who overstays their visa beyond a year faces a 10-year bar.