The penalties for illegally entering the United States tend to be considered "civil penalties" rather than "criminal," (sort of like a traffic ticket) but the consequences are still very real - if and when they're enforced.
While in the commission of the "civil" violation a person might also end up committing a felony - as in the case of committing fraud by using forged, altered or stolen documents or if you were the one doing the "human smuggling." The human being smuggled appears to have only committed a civil infraction and would likely get a ticket with a mandatory court appearance to discuss their situation with a judge.
The most recent penalties for illegally entering the U.S. are actually found in Title II of the House Conference Report for House Resolution 3610 of the 104th Congress (September 1996).
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquer...104query.html|
This was the famous (or infamous?) compromise worked out between Bill Clinton and the new Republican majority in Congress.
"Division C" of this report contains the text of the "Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. Within that division, Section 105 amends Section 275 of (8 U.S.C. 1325) - I believe that this may be the "Title 8" to which you referred earlier.
Granted, it ain't much... but there is a penalty for illegally entering the United States. And, as I said before - if the "illegal immigrant" commits other crimes to facilitate their entry, such as human smuggling, document fraud, trespassing on Federal, State or Private lands, or whatever... at least hypothetically, those crimes can be added to the civil penalties described in the image above.
Threaded Mode
