Elizabeth Ouyang of Columbia University 's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity described Zheng 's case as part of a pattern of lawful permanent residents convicted as youths in the 1980s and 1990s becoming targets of immigration laws passed after their convictions , in particular two laws passed in 1996 : the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act . Increasingly aggressive enforcement of these laws in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks meant that a number of Asians who had grown up in the United States faced removal to countries in which they had not lived since they were children
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Eddy Zheng