California attorney general becomes latest Democrat to call for decriminalization of illegal immigrants

By Jason Hopkins

California’s top law enforcement officer has joined the growing ranks of Democrats who wish to decriminalize illegal immigration into the U.S.

“They are not criminals,” Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California, said to HuffPost about immigrants who attempt to enter the country without authorization. “They haven’t committed a crime against someone, and they are not acting violently or in a way that’s harmful to people. And I would argue they are not harming people indirectly either.”

Becerra, according to his HuffPost interview, acknowledges that migrants who attempt to enter the country illegally are breaking civil laws, and he argues they should not go completely unpunished. However, he contends that charging them with immigration violations while also placing them into the deportation process unfairly brands them as criminals.

“If you call them criminals, it’s a lot easier to get people to turn against them than if you call them undocumented immigrants,” the first-term attorney general stated.

Becerra, a Democrat, is not alone in his calls to reform how U.S. law enforcement handles illegal immigrants. Julian Castro, a former Obama administration official and a 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, says he wants to decriminalize the act of unauthorized entry into the U.S., leaving only a civil penalty. Fellow Democratic presidential contender Beto O’Rourke has expressed similar sentiments, along with other Texas Democratic lawmakers.

Any foreign national caught for the first time attempting to enter, or residing in, the country illegally can face up to six months in prison. Subsequent violations can land individuals in prison for up to two years or much longer if they are also convicted of other drug or aggravated assault-related crimes.

Calls to decriminalize illegal immigration comes as Democrats are increasingly becoming hostile to immigration enforcement agencies altogether. Both Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Other Democrats have been attacked from the left for suggesting ICE should still exist.

“ICE operates as an unaccountable deportation force,” former Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said in January. “Dems running in 2020 should campaign on ending the agency in its current form.”

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Image courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection

5 thoughts on “California attorney general becomes latest Democrat to call for decriminalization of illegal immigrants

  1. The illegals have been instructed by US and Mexican pro-immigrant, subversive entities on how and where to get across the border, and then turn themselves in to border patrol, and claim asylum.

    The illegals know border patrol hands are tied because of BS pro-immigrant laws enacted during past decades, that have ruined California.

    Dem/Progs, and their inane inclusiveness, count on these illegals and their offspring to vote Democrat FOREVER, to eventually take over the White House, Senate and House to have total SOCIALIST, a la Bernie, control over the US FOREVER.

    MARK MY WORDS

    The Dem/Prog model is Socialist Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

    Their myopic brains do not understand, with tens of millions of illegals with different cultures and religions, hostile to the US Christian culture and religion, such models are not possible anywhere, including in Poland, Hungary, the US, etc.

  2. I think they should take California and separate it into it’s own Country and see how long they’d survive.
    The trouble is, we are now a mini California..

  3. I wonder why the Democrats are so hell bent on turning us into a third world country.

  4. You enter illegally your a Illegal so simple even a cave man can understand but Demontards not so much… The void of cranium activity in said critters especially the Taco AG of Mexifornia is unfathomable. He and the majority of Demwits should not have anything to do with upholding, writing or teaching “LAW”.

    I think we should be adopting Newer standards for Immigration (like Canada) while going back to the Old days of Ellis Island. The new standard being do you have a marketable skill and are you able to provide for yourself. Do you understand/speak English. Do you value the constitution of the United States or the Koran. (koran would be immediate expulsion, incompatible with FREEDOM) . All would spend a month in Acclimation center to learn basic’s of American life and language and time to test for disease and terrorist background.

  5. Immigrants are welcome to the US, but you have to come in using the Legal Immigration
    system and wait your turn.

    If you are sneaking in, you have broken our laws and your a CRIMINAL and any elected
    official that thinks this is OK, should be removed from office as they have taken an oath to
    support & defend the Constitution and our laws.

    Liberals will do anything for a Vote………………

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