Migrants sell up and flee Arizona ahead of crackdown
By Tim Gaynor Tim Gaynor – Sun Jul 25, 1:43 pm ET
PHOENIX (Reuters) – Nicaraguan mother Lorena Aguilar hawks a television set and a few clothes on the baking sidewalk outside her west Phoenix apartment block.
A few paces up the street, her undocumented Mexican neighbor Wendi Villasenor touts a kitchen table, some chairs and a few dishes as her family scrambles to get out of Arizona ahead of a looming crackdown on illegal immigrants.
"Everyone is selling up the little they have and leaving," said Villasenor, 31, who is headed for Pennsylvania. "We have no alternative. They have us cornered."
Under Title 8 Section 1325 of the U.S. Code, "Improper Entry by Alien," any citizen of any country other than the United States who:
Enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers; or
Eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers; or
Attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact;
has committed a federal crime.
Violations are punishable by criminal fines and imprisonment for up to six months. Repeat offenses can bring up to two years in prison. Additional civil fines may be imposed at the discretion of immigration judges, but civil fines do not negate the criminal sanctions or nature of the offense.
Liberal obfuscation, If they have entered the country illegally and have not answered for their crime they are criminals. Their criminal status doe not end until they answer for their crime. You cannot have correctly answered for your crime until you have been sentenced and correct the bad behavior. The only correction for this criminal behavior is to go back across the line.
Aside from the fact that the article misrepresent the Arizona law most likely intentionally. Being that it mirrors the Fed law it is impossible to say it does anything other than what the Fed law does.
Truth of the matter is, anyone who comes into this country with a valid visa and I-94 can apparently stay as long as they want. The I-94 is what determines the date they're supposed to leave the country; but the only thing that may actually happen to them is, they leave, and re-apply for another visa & I-94, and find out they've been "red-stamped" (denied re-entry) for 3-10 years. If determined they're in the country with an expired I-94, they can be deported -- because they're no longer legally in the country.
But the point of this story, sir, is that we're talking about "undocumented" people.