Deportation of Human Rights Abusers: Towards Achieving Accountability, Not Fostering Impunity

This article discusses recently enacted changes to U.S. immigration law allowing for deportation of violators of international human rights norms. By (1) examining Canada's implementation of similar immigration-based accountability measures for human rights violators; (2) analyzing three cases of alleged human rights violators who left their countries of origin; and (3) discussing deportation. of human rights violators in light of traditional theories of criminal punishment, this paper concludes that deportation alone is an inadequate means of achieving accountability. The article concludes with a series of guidelines for determining whether deportation should be used as part of a greater scheme to redress international human rights violations.