DOJ Concludes Illegal Entrants Can Be Prosecuted Anywhere in the U.S.
Expect prosecutions to soar and for sanctuaries to be inundated with ‘judicial warrants’
By Andrew R. Arthur on June 30, 2025
On June 21, the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) — DOJ’s wonky law crew — issued an opinion finding that “eluding inspection” under section 275(a)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is an offense that continues up to the point that an alien is caught. That will allow the department to prosecute offenders wherever they are found — giving illegal aliens another reason to self-deport and potentially undermining local “sanctuary” policies, all while giving the lie to claims that illegal aliens aren’t criminals.
Section 275 of the INA. Section 275(a) of the INA makes it a crime for an alien to enter the United States illegally, and (given that most criminal offenses are prosecuted at the local level), not surprisingly, it’s one of the most commonly charged federal crimes.
It states, in pertinent part:
Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined ... or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined ... or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.
As the foregoing reveals, a first offense under section 275(a) is a class B misdemeanor (carrying a six-month sentence), while subsequent offenses are class E federal felonies.
Every alien who crosses illegally without first going to a port of entry could potentially be charged under paragraph (1) or (2) of section 275(a), but the paragraph (1) charges are much more common because the offense is more straightforward — if an alien “jumps the line”, he or she has committed the crime.
That said, 275(a)(1) crimes aren’t “continuing” offenses. Once the alien is on this side of the border, the crime is complete. The question then is whether offenses under paragraph (2) are complete once aliens elude an officer at the border or the ports, as well.
https://cis.org/Arthur/DOJ-Concludes-Illegal-Entrants-Can-Be-Prosecuted-Anywhere-US
