End of border fence between the US and Mexico a few miles west of the border crossing in Sasabe, Arizona. Image credit: Shutterstock

Texas Republican Congressman John Culberson has introduced three bills which will strengthen immigration enforcement by ensuring that every illegal alien over the age of eighteen is prosecuted wherever they’re found in the U.S., illegal immigrant convicts are fined, imprisoned, or both, and felony criminal illegal aliens are deported upon completion of their sentences:

• The Zero Tolerance for Illegal Entry Act (H.R. 5101) will expand the ‘zero tolerance’ program enacted in the Del Rio sector to the entire border. This legislation ensures that any individual, eighteen years or older, that illegally crosses the border will be prosecuted to the fullest extent under existing criminal law that has been in effect since the 1950’s.The bill is cosponsored by Congressmen Brian Babin, Glen Grothman, Jody Hice and Pete Sessions
• The Interior Immigration Enforcement Act (H.R. 5102) will ensure that adults without lawful immigration status in the United States will be prosecuted wherever they are found. Under current law, any illegal alien apprehended must be prosecuted in the border sector in which they originally entered. The bill is cosponsored by  Brian Babin, Glen Grothman, Jody Hice, Steve King, John Ratcliffe and Pete Sessions.
• The Criminal Alien Detention and Removal Act (H.R. 5103) guarantees that any illegal alien convicted of a felony will automatically be deported by U.S. Marshals upon completion of their prison sentence.  The bill was sponsored by Congressmen  Culberson and John Abney and cosponsored by Congressmen Brian Babin, Doug Collins, Glen Grothman, Jody Hice and Pete Sessions

Culberson stated that these three straightforward changes to our convoluted immigration law will help decrease the number of illegal immigrants crossing the Texas-Mexico border by creating disincentives for people to enter the country illegally.

The common sense legislation introduced by Culberson could accomplish much more than that. It would prevent the release of at least some of the thousands of illegal immigrant  murderers, kidnappers and other criminals Immigration and Customs Enforcement released back into the community. If such legislation had been adopted in 2006, after the Democrats scuttled the Senate’s compromise on immigration reform in order to gain a political advantage, illegal immigration might have been stopped. And maybe Donald Trump wouldn’t have had his issue to garner his support.

I realize that legal immigration is an extremely vital element of our economy. Nevertheless, the only way I can see to stem the endless stream of illegal immigration is to stop rewarding those who are in the U.S. illegally, punish those the illegal aliens and those that hire them, and control the border. I supported the Senate’s 2006 compromise on immigration reform. My main objection to other “comprehensive reform” proposals that give legal status to illegal aliens is those proposals would encourage more illegal immigration, as did the amnesty authorized by the 1986 Immigration Reform Act.

Allowing those that disregard the nation’s immigration laws to remain here and pursue citizenship sends a simple message – get into the United States anyway you can because eventually, you will be legalized.