Q&A – Paying for Criminal Illegal Immigrants – April 28th, 2025 – Driven By Braman Motorcars
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Today’s Entry: Hi Brian- today’s (Monday’s) civil vs criminal charges for illegal immigrants raised to mind something I’ve been wondering about: why is it that those convicted do their time here? Why can the sentence not be immediate removal from the US with no possibility of return? Depending on the country, we could suggest to their home country that they incarcerate their citizen appropriately. Or even Gitmo if it’s less expensive than US prison. I would love to not pay yet more taxpayer money to keep them in the relative ease of US prisons. What say you?
Bottom Line: Today’s note picks up on yesterday’s Q&A where I broke down how our legal system handles illegal immigration cases and specifically, the breakout between civil and criminal illegal immigration cases. Before diving into the questions posed in today’s Q&A here’s a quick refresh of when illegal immigration is handled as a civil offense and when it’s a criminal offense.
- Civil Offense:
- Unlawful Presence: Entering the U.S. without authorization (e.g., crossing the border without inspection) or overstaying a visa is generally a civil violation under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
- Criminal Offenses:
- Illegal Entry: entering or attempting to enter the U.S. at a place other than a designated port of entry is a federal misdemeanor
- Illegal Reentry: Reentering the U.S. after being deported or removed is a felony
- Other Crimes: Related activities, like smuggling aliens, using fraudulent documents, or identity theft to gain employment
Over the past decade anywhere from 95-99% of all illegal immigration cases have been handled as civil violations. That breakout should help to address one of the questions. In answer to the question about whether a sentence could be deportation without the possibility of returning?
Given that illegal immigrants who evade authorities to enter the United States are part of the small percentage tried as criminal illegal aliens, a sentence of deportation would effectively be the same as those handled as a civil offense. Also, given that these illegal immigrants evaded authorities originally, there’s a strong likelihood that they’d seek to reenter the country similarly in the future. A Department of Homeland Security study estimated that 30% of people deported from the United States, attempt to reenter the United States. Given the record low rate of illegal immigration we’re seeing currently, that number is likely to drop during the Trump administration, but could easily change with a different administration in the future. For about a third of illegal immigrants, deportation has been viewed as an inconvenience, not a deterrent. So, with that said, let’s dive into the meat of today’s Q&A.
The reason illegal immigrants are sentenced within the United States, is because there is one criminal code within the United States. Title 18 is the US criminal code and it does not delineate sentencing guideline differences for citizens as opposed to illegal immigrants. It’s not oversight, it’s intentional. The U.S. criminal code only has jurisdiction within the United States. While INTERPOL and similar services show criminal convictions for those seeking to travel internationally, which can restrict future travel, a criminal conviction within the United States only applies to the United States. So, the only way to ensure that a criminal illegal immigrant serves time for their crimes is within our prison system (followed by deportation once released).
As for the angle of encouraging the countries of origin for illegal immigrants to hold them accountable within their prisons…that’s highly unlikely for multiple reasons. Numerous countries are already reluctant or outright refuse to accept deportees – let alone those convicted of criminal offenses within the United States. Additionally, many of these countries won’t shoulder the expense or inconvenience of housing criminal illegal immigrants and many countries also don’t have the needed prison space.
What’s more is that according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, from Mexico south into central and South America what are known as non-state armed groups (think MS-13 and Tren de Aragua) control half or more of the prison population leading to rampant corruption and instability. This dynamic is what makes El Salvador’s current situation unique and one that the Trump administration has tapped into for detaining illegal immigrants who are known terrorists. As for costs…
The typical cost per bed in a federal prison per year runs just under $44,000. The cost per bed in Guantanamo Bay is a staggering $272,409. Gitmo isn’t the low-cost alternative. That’s for sure. As for my thoughts…
I hear you and understand when it comes to paying to imprison criminal illegal immigrants. It’s frustrating. For that matter the hard cost to us for deporting illegal immigrants is aggravating too. This dynamic is among the many reasons why every effort should be made to prevent illegal immigration into the United States in the first place. Once here, their problems become our problems and lord knows that with the historic scope of illegal immigration into the United States during the Biden administration, we’ll be paying for those problems for a long time to come.
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