Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) made a shocking statement on illegal immigration in an interview on MSNBC.
“It is not a criminal violation to enter the country illegally,” Crockett said Saturday on The Katie Phang Show. “It’s not a crime.”
Crockett claimed that illegal border crossings are a civil offense instead of a criminal one.
First of all, Crockett’s statement is completely wrong. Title 8, Section 1325 of the U.S. Code makes entering the country illegally a federal misdemeanor. It is punishable by fines and up to six months in jail for first-time offenders. Repeat offenders can face two years in prison. An illegal immigrant convicted of a felony can face up to 20 years in prison if caught reentering the United States. Civil offenses only apply to those who overstay their visas.
Second, Crockett took issue with law enforcement pursuing illegal immigrants who have not committed any other crimes.
“They really want our local law enforcement to go out and round up people when they could be looking out for the murderers and the sexual abusers, as well as the robbers,” she said. “They want them to go and round people up on civil accusations.”
While illegally crossing the border is not as serious an offense as murder, it would be unwise to let criminals go free just because someone else committed a bigger crime.
Crockett accused Republicans of hypocrisy for wanting to arrest illegal immigrants while defending President Donald Trump, whom Crockett said was “the biggest criminal that we have ever seen go into the White House.”
Crockett referred to the partisan convictions against Trump for falsifying business records. The judge granted him an unconditional discharge in January.
The interview came after the mayors of four so-called sanctuary cities testified before the House Oversight Committee. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) pointed out that the mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver, and New York were all in violation of U.S. immigration law. For example, Boston has a statute that does not allow law enforcement officers to obtain immigration status from occupants of the city.
During the hearing, Luna said she would criminally refer all four mayors to the Justice Department for their violations.
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Although illegal immigration has sharply declined since Trump took office, the administration is still working to address those already in the country illegally.
Crockett’s statement about the criminality of illegal immigration shows how tone-deaf the Democrats are on the issue.