There are people who illegally entered the country spending months languishing in detention. An estimated 37,000 people, for periods oftentimes of 5 months or more. Why not just speed things up and send them back as soon as possible? Then there's also the issue of punishment. Those caught reentering after having been caught for illegal entry before are sentenced to a year in jail typically, more if they have any type of record in their past criminal history. Those caught illegally entering a third time can get a very long sentence, maybe 6 to 10 years. Are these punishments excessive and cruel? Strict enforcement of immigration law doesn't necessarily require long sentences. In fact the way it has been for the last 20 years, it has basically been a crapshoot if an illegal immigrant is even going to get arrested or not. Picking out a few of them and handing out a harsh sentence isn't really doing justice or keeping the border strictly enforced. Like someone once said, "Certainty of punishment is greater deterrent than the severity of punishment"
The delay is caused by "Due Process of the Law" that's mandatory under the US Constitution. We need to remember a few facts. Being undocumented and in the United States is a civil offense, not a criminal offense, and it does not require deportation. The actual immigration law states they "May be deported" and not that they "Will be deported" and there are many provisions in our immigration laws that allow them to remain (and become documented) in the United States. Each case must be addressed by an immigration judge that, based upon the evidence, determines of the person qualifies for one of the categories that will allow them to remain and become documented immigrants to the United States. The number of immigration judges is limited, they can only address one case at a time, and each case takes time to resolve to ensure due process of the law. When President Obama left there were about 500,000 pending immigration cases if I recall correctly. The immigration courts were already stretched to the limit with this backlog of cases to be heard. Trump's executive order for mass arrests and deportation flooded an already overflowing backlog of immigration case to the point that it's slowed down the entire process. There were fewer actual deportations under Trump than there were under Obama because Trump is so ignorant that he's literally broken the system. The long incarcerations prior to a hearing is soon to reach the point where the federal courts are going to require the release of those being held indefinitely for their immigration hearing. Once again the Constitution does not allow for indefinite incarceration without due process of the law. As always Trump's ignorance and disregard for the US Constitution is the underlying problem and that problem is far worse than the undocumented aliens we have in the United States.
A person can only be charged with illegal entry if they're actually busted trying to enter the country across our border. It's next to impossible for our government to determine how a person entered the country after the fact and a significant percentage enter legally and then over-stay their visa. DHS studies indicate there are almost twice as many "visa overstays" than the estimated number of illegal border crossings annually and the percentage of visa over-stays is going up. Entering the country illegally is a criminal offense. Entering the country legally on a temporary visa or on the Visa Waiver Program and just staying is a civil offense. With the backlog of immigration cases the government simply doesn't have the resources to try and prove that a person without documentation actually entered the United States across our border illegally.
