For months now, as part of its effort to justify and rally support for deportation, the Trump administration has cleverly referred to all undocumented immigrants as “criminals.” That strategy is as grossly inaccurate as it is brutally manipulative. Consider the facts behind this confusing mess.
Entering the U.S. by unlawful means, crossing the border without inspection at a legal point of entry, is indeed a crime. But it is a misdemeanor (8 U.S.C. § 1325). Reentry after deportation, crossing the border without inspection a second time, however, does rise to a felony (8 U.S.C. § 1326).
By contrast, overstaying the expiration on one’s visa (entering the country legally with inspection but remaining beyond the term of the visa) is a civil—not criminal—offense. According to the Center For Migration Studies, these people make up over 40 percent of the undocumented population in the United States. They are not criminals. They have not committed either a misdemeanor or a felony.
The evidence does not support Trump’s narrative. According to recently released data from the federal government, about one-third of all ICE detainees (or about 12,000 people as of a couple of weeks ago) have no criminal record.
Obtaining data on this point is, so far, very difficult. Yet, between January and June, according to research done by The Guardian, there has been an 807 percent increase in the arrests of immigrants with no criminal record.
Importantly, of the detainees who do have a criminal record, most committed misdemeanors, not felonies. Here again, the Trump administration wants us to believe it is rounding up a lot of very bad people, and some of them are. But too many of them are not.
My fellow Americans, we cannot let this continue. We are better than this.
On May 31, ICE administrators instructed field officers to “turn the creative knob up to 11” to increase arrests. Creativity would seem to be code for cruelty. That cruelty is being perpetrated every day in our names, without legal grounding. History will show that the criminals were the ones wearing masks.
