Illegal aliens are prosecuted under the U.S. law for any crime that they commit. They are “subject to the jurisdiction” of state, federal law and local ordinances.
There is a huge difference between explulsion of a person with diplomatic immunity and prosecution of a person for a crime, including the crime of being in the nation illegally.
Legal immigrants, and persons on student, work or tourist visas can also be deported under U.S. Immigration laws.
Examples of deportable offenses for legal immigrants:
Failure to Obey the Terms of A Visa or Otherwise Maintain Status
If someone is in the U.S. as a nonimmigrant (most likely with a visa), various conditions apply to their stay. For example, if they are a tourist, they are not allowed to work. If they fail to abide by these conditions and maintain nonimmigrant status, they become deportable.
Failure to Advise USCIS of Change of Address
It’s a crime for immigrants not to submit immediate notifications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) of their changes of address within ten days.
Commission of a Crime
A number of crimes — though not all — can result in an immigrant’s becoming deportable from the United States. The full list is at Section 237(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, or “I.N.A.” For example, crimes that can get a green card holder or a nonimmigrant alien deported include alien smuggling, document fraud, domestic violence, crimes of “moral turpitude,” drug or controlled substance offenses firearms trafficking, money laundering, fraud, espionage, sabotage, terrorism, and of course the classic serious crimes such as rape, murder, and any other “aggravated felonies.”
For any alien, legal or illegal who is convicted of a crime, the court is not likely to label it a “crime of moral turpitude” or an “aggravated felony.” The alien may simply be told that the crime is classified as, for example, a “misdemeanor”. However, the immigration authorities will make their own judgment about how the crime is classified for immigration law purposes, with the result that certain misdemeanors can, in fact, make any alien deportable.
Violation of Immigration Laws
Someone who violates the immigration laws by, for example, participating in a fraudulent marriage or helping smuggle other aliens into the United States, may be found deportable.
Receiving Public Assistance
Anyone who has received a green card knows that proving that they would not become a “public charge” — that is, have to rely on need-based government assistance — was an important part of proving that they were not inadmissible to the United States and get a green card. The immigration laws follow this up with the statement that, “Any alien who, within five years after the date of entry; has become a public charge from causes not affirmatively shown to have arisen since entry is deportable.” (Section 237(a)(5) of the I.N.A.)
Anyone having a green card, their petitioner, and any other financial sponsor, are supposed to follow through with their promises to support the alien (and can also be asked to reimburse any agencies from which the immigrant received public assistance.)
I’m still not convinced that the “subject to jurisdiction” clause of the constitution was INTENDED to include children of illegals.
At best, the 14th is SILENT on the issue of illegals because I don’t think the drafters had them in mind when it was drafted.
Consider — In 1884, 16 years after the 14th Amendment was ratified, John Elk, who — as you may have surmised by his name — was an Indian, had to go to the Supreme Court to argue that he was an American citizen because he was born in the United States.
He lost. In Elk v. Wilkins, 112 U.S. 94, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment DID NOT GRANT Indians citizenship.
The “main object of the opening sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the court explained — and not for the first or last time — “was to settle the question, upon which there had been a difference of opinion throughout the country and in this court, as to the citizenship of free negroes and to put it beyond doubt that all persons, white or black ... should be citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.”
So, if American Indians born in American soil were not considered SUBJECT TO THE JURISDICTION of the United States, therefore NOT CITIZENS *AFTER* the 14th Amendment was approved by the states, WHY SHOULD ILLEGALS?
American Indians were not made citizens until 1924. SO, what happened during those 56 years after the ratification of the 14th Amendment? Indians were not American citizens subject to the jurisdiction of this country, even if they were BORN in the United States.
It required a SPECIFIC ACT BY CONGRESS, “THE INDIAN CITIZENSHIP ACT OF 1924.” to make them citizens.
Supreme Court precedents specifically say that children of foreign diplomats, and also children of occupying forces, are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and do not automatically get U.S. citizenship upon birth.
Therefore, I don’t think that it would be a huge problem for Congress to treat illegal immigrants like foreign diplomats or American Indians prior to 1924, who are NOT subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
We treat them like any foreigner living in the United State until they LEGALLY apply to become permanent residents and become naturalized.