Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves: What Europe's Romanies Can Teach the United States about Crime-Motivated Immigration Reform

23 April 2012

This comment proposes that the United States could learn a great deal about the dangers of extreme immigration policy-making by looking to the European states and their dealings with the Romani, specifically the French expulsions of the Romani in 2010. Through this lens, this comment analyzes flaws in the U.S.’ crime-motivated immigration enforcement programs, and argues that the U.S. needs to move quickly to remedy flaws in immigration enforcement before it repeats many of the mistakes that led to the current condition of Europe’s Romanies and creates its own class of un-integrated ethnic minorities.