White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the Trump administration’s official policy of treating all undocumented immigrants as criminals.
This differs from the Biden administration, which referred to the immigrants as undocumented noncitizens.
“If you are an individual, a foreign national, who illegally enters the United States of America, you are by definition a criminal,” Leavitt explained.
According to the Justice Department, improper entry into the United States is a criminal offense punishable by civil penalties, including a fine.
Subsequent offenses carry harsher penalties, such as a five-year ban on returning to the United States and potential prison time.
“They are criminals as far as this administration goes,” Leavitt stated. “I understand the previous administration didn’t see it that way.
So it’s a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who violates our immigration law as a criminal, but that’s exactly what they are.
For years, people have debated whether undocumented immigrants are criminals. The ACLU contends that being undocumented is not a crime.
“The act of being present in the United States in violation of the immigration laws is not, by itself, a crime,” an ACLU brief stated. “While federal immigration law does criminalize some actions that may be related to undocumented presence in the United States, undocumented presence itself is not a violation of federal criminal law.”
A reporter brought up the issue of ICE arrests during the White House press briefing over the weekend. On Sunday, ICE made 1,179 arrests, with NBC News reporting that 566 of them appeared to have no prior criminal record.
The reporter asked Leavitt if the administration still prioritizes arrests of people with criminal records.
“The president has said that, of course, the illegal criminal drug dealers, the rapists, the murderers, the individuals who have committed heinous acts in the interior of our country and who have terrorized law-abiding American citizens, those should be the priority of ICE,” Leavitt stated.
But that doesn’t mean that the other illegal criminals who entered our country’s borders are off the table.”
ICE announced that more than 4,500 people have been arrested since the Trump administration began.
