Penn State Law eLibrary

Join the Penn State Law Center for Immigrants' Rights Clinic for a discussion on prosecuting noncitizens for illegal entry and reentry under 8 U.S.C. §§ 1325-1326.

• Illegal reentry is currently the highest individually charged crime in the United States.
• Since the 1990s, 48 percent of overall growth in federal convictions is attributed to unlawful reentry charges alone.
• Incarceration for illegal entry and reentry cost American taxpayers more than $1 billion per year. (In addition to the significant costs of civil immigration penalties.
• In 2013, 49.5 percent of persons sentenced for illegal reentry had at least one child in the U.S.



Expert panelists will discuss the federal interests in prosecuting noncitizens for illegal entry and reentry, whether such federal interests are served when considering the significant humanitarian costs of the prosecutions, and the role of prosecutorial discretion.