Change I can believe in! Pres. Trump Reinstates Operation Streamline for First–Time Border Crossers Pres. Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions will prosecute first-time border crossers as criminals under Operation Streamline. Under Pres. Obama only repeat border-crossers could be prosecuted under the program. Operation Streamline conducts fast-track prosecutions in group hearings that process illegal aliens from arrest to jail — with sentences as long as six months — in as little as one day. The program was initiated in December 2005 as a pilot project in Del Rio, Texas. DHS expanded it to Yuma, Ariz. a year later, and to Laredo, Texas in October 2007. Under the Obama administration first-time border crosses were deported to their native country but did not face criminal charges. Under Operation Streamline first time offenders will be convicted with misdemeanors but will face felony charges if they illegally re-enter. The Trump administration is returning to this policy in an effort to deter illegal aliens from entering the U.S. So I guess just crossing the border really will be a crime. And if they're criminals, I guess they would be excluded from any future amnesty?
It's always been a crime to re-enter the United States after getting the boot the first time around. Now, it appears that someone has to explain this "streamline" business to you. Title 8 (EIGHT), regarding improper entry, is a civil statute. However, it mentions a lot of Title 18 (EIGHTEEN) crimes. For example, if Hosea runs from the authorities at the border, that is the Title 18 crime of eluding authorities. Then there is lying to the authorities and / or providing fake papers. The practice has been to put the detainees in custody and process them for improper entry with deportation being the only thing we did. That saved the government from holding people in custody to be tried for the criminal actions. With streamlining, foreigners will be charged for Title 18 crimes and be held accountable. When they are sentenced, they will be deported after the criminal portions of their sentences are fulfilled. By being held accountable for the crimes, they are more likely to get a criminal record than in times past when we would forego putting aliens in jail and trying them for crimes related to the improper entry.
My point was facetious. I've been told multiple times on this forums by open border types that crossing some imaginary line wasn't any sort of crime.
It makes people mad, but crossing the border in and of itself is not a crime. Everybody gets pissed off about it. I thought differently at one time, but after six years working in it, I can tell you factually, crossing the border is not a crime. Despite what some want it to be, it isn't. And, I'm not sold that it should be either. Making crossing the border a crime encourages the left to attack Liberty even more in ways you cannot fathom. They got the streamline deal because foreigners were detained and we didn't pursue them beyond the improper entry. The government could have prosecuted for the immigration related crimes, but didn't. It meant putting foreigners in custody for petty crimes, then once that was adjudicated, they got sent to immigration officials for deportation proceedings. It is a waste of money. But, like we're doing to our own people, we're focusing on ways to make criminals out of folks rather than to solve the underlying problems.
Charging illegal border crossers with a misdemeanor is going a long way to solving some of the underlying problems.
It's treated as a crime by the government, but it is not a moral crime.There is no identifiable victim (though collectivists will say "society" is the victim), so no crime. Any more than it was a crime to be black and sit in the front of the bus in violation of Jim Crow laws, or be of Japanese ancestry in WWIII.
That would be funny. I imagine that the prosecutor will be requesting a much longer sentence for that.
When George W. Bush was president, he had Michael Mukasey as his Attorney General. Mukasey ruled that improper entry was a civil offense, not a crime; therefore, undocumented immigrants were not entitled to a taxpayer paid attorney. Then the policy was to allow the Title 18 crimes related to an improper entry slide... you know, things like lying to the authorities, eluding them, producing false documents, etc. Obama's attorney General, Eric Holder over-ruled Mukasey on whether or not to provide undocumented foreigners with a taxpayer paid attorney due to the seriousness of the consequences. But, he did not change the ruling that improper entry is a civil, not a criminal violation. Quite frankly, the only problem the right can articulate about undocumented immigrants is that "they're illegal." Deportation, draconian enforcement of the laws via streamlining, etc. are not going to solve any problems. Fact is, when the United States gets too heavy handed with too many laws and regulations, businesses tend to leave the U.S. - as did Ford by moving to China. Yes, we have issues with immigration. Trying to resolve it by criminalizing people who are doing things all of us would in the same situation will not work. There are answers and there is a better way - but, it is foreign to both the left and the right. But, there IS a better solution.
