Summary
The Trump administration has announced a new registry for undocumented immigrants, requiring them to self-report, provide fingerprints, and list their addresses.
Those who fail to comply could face fines or prosecution under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The move aligns with the administration’s broader crackdown on illegal immigration and mass deportation plans.
Critics, including the National Immigration Law Center, warn the registry could be used to target individuals for deportation, drawing parallels to past government efforts to register noncitizens for national security purposes.
Being here illegally is not generally a crime. It’s a civil infraction. Making it a crime to fail to register effectively criminalizes a previously legal issue.
I’m just going down the thread pointing this out, but the executive doesn’t get to make up crimes. I want to see where in the US Code this is punished criminally, not where there’s a toothless mandate to register. (That hasn’t been enforced in 85 years)
Edit to add -
Okay, I finally found the punishment section. It’s 8 USC 1306 and yeah we can see why it hasn’t been used before. Six months in jail or 1,000 dollars fine for willfully failing to register. For which they essentially have to prove a thought crime, (you knew and did not register). Failure to update an existing registration is simply removal.
So the law hasn’t been used because we already have the authority to remove unregistered immigrants and paying for their short jail stay is a ridiculous mismanagement of money.
Good gods! So this administration is going to go hard on this method aren’t they?
Yep. Fill those private detention centers. Or the government ones with support contracts.