Perhaps ICE should focus their resources on these criminals instead of attempting to deport every person who ever crossed the border. Has she ever considered that this change might even be within their own power?
They don’t. That’s the problem. All you read about is the propaganda. My friend genuinely cares about making sure that there is justice but the media paints her like she’s some immigrant-hating Trump MAGA warrior. She has worked under Obama and Trump, and her job hasn’t changed.
No, I read first hand experiences. Your friend can be whatever she wants, but if she is trying to argue that ICE doesn't pursue non-criminals, she is untrustworthy.
Most "illegal immigrants" are here on visa overstays, which is decidedly non-criminal. So you should refrain from correcting people about things you yourself aren't fully versed in.
Undoubtedly some of the visa overstays entered with a good faith belief that their stay would be temporary, but my guess would be the vast majority planned to immigrate and lied at some point in the visa issuance or border control process. That would make them make them guilty of criminal improper entry.
The statutory language is in 8 USC § 1325[0] and consists in relevant part of:
"Any alien who... obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation... shall... be fined under title 18 or imprisoned... or both"
It's hard to prove and rarely prosecuted of course, but that doesn't change the fact that many of the overstays are guilty.
That's all well and good - but ICE doesn't just pursue border-crossers -- they regularly arrest and deport people here on Visa overstays..
Many of the people that OPs friend is complaining about receiving aid from San Francisco "activist lawyers" are from Asia, who obviously didn't enter the country illegally, hence, non-criminals.
No, it's not a crime - it's a civil offense by deliberate design. If it were a crime, it'd have to be judged in a criminal court with juries and a whole lot of inconvenient rights instead of the farce that is immigration courts.
And some of the people being brutally punished by ICE and CBP do not even know what a country border is, because they don't know what a country is, because they're not even 1 year old.