Let's play connect the dots!

[commandercranky]

So, as you may have heard, back in December the US House passed a bill, The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, that would make it a felony to be undocumented in the US and would also make it a felony to assist anyone who is undocumented. In addition it calls for the permanent detention of all arrested

Comments

[rootlesscosmo]

I'm hearing an echo of the 1952 (?) McCarran-Walter Immigration Act, which provided for reopening the detention camps that had been used for Japanese internees during WW2, to house "subversives" whom the Attorney General was authorized to round up without warrants or trials. Never implemented, and it may have been repealed at some point, but this sounds familiar...

and isn't "making it a felony to be undocumented" a Bill of Attainder?

[commandercranky]

and isn't "making it a felony to be undocumented" a Bill of Attainder?

Could be, but of course, that's assuming that the Constitution applies. Although the Constitution generally applies to citizens and non-citizens alike, that general rule goes right out the window in immigration law. I don't recall the exact language/rhetoric to this jurisprudence, but there is a long line of cases establishing the principle that the executive (and presumably the legislature as well) have unreviewable power to regulate immigration, and that such protections as the 4th, 5th, 8th and 14th amendments do not apply. I can only assume (I hope I'm wrong) that federal courts would readily conclude that other provisions of the Constitution don't have any power over immigration laws either.

Still, it would be nice to see some creative and effective legal challenge to this disgusting piece of legislation.

[commandercranky]

To add just a little more legal context: designating mere presence in the US without immigration documents as a felony allows for some pretty serious ramifications to be visited upon anyone convicted. If you've been convicted of an "aggravated felony" (such as this one), you are barred from entering the US legally for 10 years in some instances, and for life in other instances.

Apart from the slew of moral issues this raises, it also poses some dicey jurisprudential concerns related to enforceability: i.e., when such outrageously punitive consequences are attached to this "crime," doesn't that just discourage compliance with the law even further?

[st_danielle]

reading this the other day made me throw my coffee mug across the room