>>>>>My son heard on the radio that in the United States they want to declare it a criminal act, for an alien to be in the United States without documentation, or something of the sort. He asked: "Wasn't it a criminal act, already?" To the best of my knowledge, I answered that I assume that aliens can be thrown out of the country for being there without a permit, but that they can't be otherwise prosecuted and thrown into prison. Is the news he heard correct? Is this my understanding of the situation correct?
>>>>>
>>>>>My son heard this news in Spanish; would the word "felony" be used in English?
>>>>>
>>>>>TIA,
>>>>>
>>>>>Hilmar.
>>>>
>>>>Maybe there's some confusion between 'illegal' and 'criminal'. According to this link entering illegally is a crime, being in the country illegally is not : http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57266
>>>
>>>Really does seem to be a distinction without a difference if you are in the country illegally because you entered illegally.
>>Overstaying or otherwise violating the terms of a visa (working on a tourist visa etc) would be the only circumstance I could think of where one might not be guilty of a crime. Otherwise, having entered illegally one has committed a crime.
>>
>>Doesn't seem to be any proof (or even claim) that he did enter illegally?
>
>However if one is in the country illegally then I believe the burden of proof should be on the individual as to how he came to be *in* the country. It would not be an unfair presumption that at some point he entered and therefore ...

So you advocate 'presumption of guilt' ?
If adopted that could make a mess of the legal system in general....

>
>But I would hope the judge's reasoning is that he is interpreting the law strictly as written and that is good in that it points out how sloppy "lawmakers" are when writing laws to begin with and not reasoning their logical conclusions.
>
>But if I suddenly were arrested by German police and they found I was not in Germany legally I don't think they would assume I had somehow spontaneously generated in Germany but there would be a presumption that at some point I "entered" Germany. <g>

In practice, both in Germany and the U.S., whether either or both ''entering' or 'being present' are designated as 'criminal' is probably irrelevant. The only realistic course of action is deportation (or not) - a custodial sentence would certainly be self-defeating....

>As part of such absurdity, I find it amusing when a Mexican national in the US illegally is convicted of a capital crime in Texas and then argues against the death penalty on the grounds that they don't have one in Mexico. ( "Sure I killed my parents but I plead for mercy as I am an orphan ..." )