MIAMI (IPS)—Antonio Barrios was before the court for a minor offense. Employed to clean up a construction site, he had sought a shortcut by dumping some debris at a nearby residence. He was arrested when the homeowner filed a complaint with police.

Mr. Barrios’ court-appointed lawyer worked out a plea bargain. Mr. Barrios would plead guilty, be sentenced to "time served" after spending the previous night in jail, and do 20 hours of community service.

Judge Gerald Bagley was only too willing to accept the plea. This was a misdemeanor offense and his calendar was clogged with cases involving much more serious crimes. Judge Bagley also warned Mr. Barrios that the guilty plea could get him deported.

Mr. Barrios was released to the joyous arms of his mother and girlfriend. But their joy may be temporary.

Under the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA), effective since April 1997, Mr. Barrios, a Honduran immigrant, can be adjudged by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to be a convicted felon—never mind that he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor—and deported.

And under the Anti-Terrorism Act, passed after the 1996 Oklahoma bombing, he can also be arrested and detained until his deportation.

The two pieces of legislation have been denounced as the most oppressive in a series of anti-immigrant measures enacted by the Republican Congress since taking control of the House in 1994. Most worrisome is that these laws can be applied retroactively, say immigration advocacy organizations and other human rights groups.

They warned in 1996 that the new law would victimize people who had lived in the United States for years, even decades and had committed offenses, even minor offenses, for which they had already been punished.

They argued the retroactivity clauses were unconstitutional and could lead to someone being punished twice for the same offense, and expressed fear of mass deportations.

Anti-immigration agencies denounced the warnings as "scare mongering."

But there has been a steady increase in the number of people being deported by the INS. In 1997 the INS deported 113,698 people, 23,000 more than its target. It said some 51,000 of them were people with criminal convictions.

Many of the deportees have been Caribbean nationals. More than 15,000 people have been sent back to Commonwealth Caribbean countries since 1993. In 1995 the figure was 2,600. It was 3,000 in 1996, 3,800 in 1997 and 5,824 last year.

Despite the increase, the level of deportations has not kept pace with the numbers detained and all INS detention facilities are seriously overcrowded. The agency says it needs another 16,000 bed spaces.

Some detainees and deportees are serious criminals.

A joint-undercover operation by the Border Patrol (the INS’ enforcement arm) the Palm Beach Sheriff’s office and the Riviera Police Department detained 31 men who had been convicted of and served prison time for sexual offenses, including molestation of children as young as six. All but three were legal permanent residents.

But many of those facing deportation are not criminals, say spokespersons for immigrants’ rights groups.

A schoolteacher and her law student husband face deportation to China if convicted when they appear in a Chicago court. Their offense? They slapped their eight-year-old daughter as punishment for lying.

American Bar Association President Phillip S. Anderson relates the story of Olufolake Olaleye from Nigeria who entered the United States legally in 1984 and became a permanent resident in 1990.

In 1993, Ms. Olaleye was arrested for shoplifting. The store said she had stolen baby clothes worth $14.90. She said she bought the items days before, found them unsuitable and returned to the store to exchange them. She could not find the receipt.

Thinking it was all a misunderstanding, she appeared in court without an attorney. Wanting to end the matter quickly, she pleaded guilty. She was fined $360, given a one-year suspended sentence and put on 12-months probation. Both were terminated two months later when she paid the fine in full.

Olufolake Olaleye had no more trouble with the law and was never on welfare. She supported herself and her two children working as a gas station attendant.

Her application for U.S. citizenship was approved in October 1996. The INS had reviewed her 1993 conviction and classified it as a petty offense. Then Congress passed the IIRAIRA. Two aspects of that law hit her. The provision for the INS to classify almost any crime as a felony, and the retroactivity.

In August 1997, the INS reopened her case to consider the impact of the IIRAIRA on her misdemeanor conviction. In October, the agency reclassified her shoplifting offense as an aggravated felony and denied her citizenship. Last June she was ordered deportation. She faces separation from her U.S. citizen children, or uprooting them from their country of birth.