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.
The executive doesn’t get to create crimes. I want to see where in the US code they’re drawing the idea for criminal punishment. The cited code doesn’t provide for any punishment. As read on it’s own it’s effectively toothless.
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.
Willfully failing to register doesn’t mean ‘you knew and did not register’, ignorance of the law isn’t a defense.
Willfully failing to register means ‘you didn’t register and you were not in a coma or otherwise prevented to doing so by things outside of your control’.
Ignorance of the law is actually a defence in many situations. You’re thinking about the reasonable person standard, ignorance of things like lying for monetary gain isn’t a defence. Not knowing you’re supposed to fill out more paperwork through a language barrier is exactly where it’s a defence.