Quote:
Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
Is there a law against crossing the border without permission? Would breaking that law be a crime?
|
Yes. The law August cited addresses that, but the prosecution needs to prove that the person crossed the border illegally. It can't be assumed or inferred unfortunately.
The difficulty is proving that a person illegally crossed a boarder, months/years after the fact with no physical evidence.
It is an unfortunate loophole in the way the laws are written. This is actually the loophole that the Arizona legislation were motivated by.
The solution might be to change the laws so that non-citizen legal aliens do have a obligation to positively prove that they are in the country legally. But that would also require citizens to also be required to prove their citizenship which can raise other complications.
It is not an easy issue to solve.