Drugs, Crime, and Aggravated Felony Deportations: Moral Panic Theory and the Legal Construction of the “Criminal Alien”

The "aggravated felony" is an oft-overlooked legal distinction that provides the basis for the removal of thousands of immigrants each year. This category's broad expansion and definitive results draw from a punitive turn in crime, drug, and immigration policy, which occurred in the 1980s and 1990s. The concept of "moral panic" is a useful tool for those who seek to understand the development of punitive responses to perceived social problems. This article revisits the original formulations of moral panic theory in order to highlight the importance of societal context in determining the symbolic salience and punitive outcomes of moral panics. The goal of the article is to evaluate the thesis that a moral panic about immigrant criminality played an important role in the development of the aggravated felony category.