The Patriot Act grew directly out of 1996 anti-terror and immigration legislation

Evidence

The usa patriot Act, passed immediately after 9/11, gave direct power to the U.S. Attorney-General to detain and prosecute aliens. As legal scholars have argued (Chang 2002; Cole 2003), the justification for giving this broad latitude in detention and deportation is grounded in a history of demonizing presumed national enemies of the U.S. state. The broad anti-terrorism legislation enacted in 1996, along with stringent regulations in immigrant policy, were direct precursors of the Patriot Act and its criminalization of immigrants (Cole and Dempsey 2002). — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 721

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Cole’s Enemy Aliens argument about the history of demonizing presumed national enemies; the 1996 precursor laws also feature in other accounts of the criminalization of immigrants. — connects to: The Patriot Act triggered a sustained surveillance boom and mass deportations under both parties.