If you were driving without a license, if you
were loitering, that would count for the 10 years in Federal prison. I don't think that those provisions are likely to make a material
difference in the kinds of crimes that we all abhor, but there is
something else that is in this bill that I think needs to be attended
to. The bill's sponsor claims this targets immigrants with criminal
convictions, but the reality is the bill mostly affects other people. The bill, for the first time, would make it a criminal offense for an
individual who was previously denied admission or ordered removed to
seek to reenter the country legally, even if the individual has no
criminal history, no history of repeated reentries. The bill does this
by adding a definition to the term ``crosses the border'' that includes
those who enter the country in ``official restraint.''
This small change means it would be a felony for a person who has
been previously denied admission or previously removed to present
themselves at a port of entry to request asylum, parole, admission, or
another form of entry consistent with immigration laws. This is a
drastic departure from current law. Under current law, an individual can be prosecuted for illegal entry
if they are trying to evade or intend to evade detection. If they are
trying to sneak in, they get caught, we charge them with a crime. An
individual who comes to a port of entry and voluntarily presents
herself to an immigration officer to ask permission to enter the
country legally has not committed a crime. This bill would change that. Think about that for a minute. The bill makes it a crime to come to a
port of entry not with the intent to enter the U.S. illegally, but to
ask for a form of entry provided by the immigration laws.
Keywords matched
immigration immigrants