No Punishment For Illegal Border Crossers

Of the approximately one million illegal immigrants caught along the Mexican border each year, nearly all escape prosecution and instead are simply escorted south of the border and released by U.S. authorities.

Knowing that there is no punitive consequence for breaking federal U.S. immigration law by entering the country illegally, many violators attempt it repeatedly and a great deal succeed.

During a five-year period more than 5 million illegal immigrants were apprehended by U.S. immigration authorities yet 98% of those arrested were released rather than prosecuted. The information was made public by a national media outlet that conducted an analysis of the latest available federal data.

The investigation found that the number of illegal immigrants who tried slipping into the U.S. after being caught annually tripled because the violators know they will not be punished. In fact, less than one percent of those caught during the period of the analysis were not prosecuted.

Under federal law, entering the country illegally is a crime punishable by a fine and up to six months in prison the first time. A second offense carries a prison sentence of up to two years. Federal prosecutors say they don’t have the manpower to prosecute every illegal immigrant and that the Department of Justice has higher priorities.

One blog points out that it should be a priority because, not only do they break our laws getting here, they break more laws every day through identity theft, falsification of identity, forgery, tax cheating, wire fraud, conspiracy, drug smuggling, drunk driving, and on and on if you have the stomach to add up all the crimes. That doesn’t even include the billions of dollars illegal aliens drain out of U.S. hospitals, schools, law enforcement and other social services.