A Little Loophole in Our Immigration Law
The Kansas Court of appeals splits some reasonably fine legal hairs in its analysis of illegal immigration law:
While unauthorized entry into the United States is illegal, being in the country after having entered illegally is not necessarily a crime, according to a new ruling by the Kansas Court of Appeals.Most of us would regard the continued refusal to leave as a perpetuation of the initial crime, but apparently the law isn't written that way. A few days ago I was teasing Norwegians for having a criminal justice system where refusing to serve your prison sentence was legal. Looks like the Norwegians aren't the only ones with enormous loopholes in their laws.
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"While Congress has criminalized the illegal entry into this country, it has not made the continued presence of an illegal alien in the United States a crime unless the illegal alien has previously been deported and has again entered this country illegally," Judge Patrick McAnany wrote for the court majority.