I have been confused about the details of immigration and deportation. What makes an “illegal alien” a “criminal illegal alien”? I recently read a helpful article in the Deseret News, entitled, “Is it a crime to be in the country illegally? We answer your questions.” It discusses many categories of those who are here illegally.

The first time an immigrant illegally enters the US, he or she has committed a misdemeanor. If he or she re-enters illegally after being once removed, that is a felony. Other categories, such as overstaying a visa, marriage fraud, expiration of temporary protected status, expiration of humanitarian parole, those awaiting resolution of claims for asylum, and DACA enrollees, have civil consequences but are not crimes.

Does the misdemeanor label make one a criminal? At what point does an immigrant become a criminal? Most Americans have committed misdemeanors — a minor violation of the criminal or regulatory law.

There are millions of illegal aliens who have committed a misdemeanor by illegally entering the country once. It is hard to live in this country without committing a misdemeanor. I have never been caught but have committed some. If you don’t think you have committed one, you don’t know the law very well. Our country is thick with misdemeanors.

Some have committed a felony by entering the country the second time after having been deported once. And then there are those who have murdered, raped, robbed, trafficked, or have been in MS-13 but have not yet been charged or convicted.

There are millions of non-citizens who are deportable but have committed no crime at all. Are we careful in our language? When we refer to criminal illegal aliens, let’s be sure our listeners or readers know whom we are talking about.

There are 1.1 million people from various backgrounds — Ukrainians, Cameroonians, Venezuelans, Haitians (pet eaters in Ohio — NOT), Afghans, Nepalis, Hondurans, Burmese, Ethiopians, Yemeni, Lebanese, South Sudanese, and Syrians — who are in the US now and came legally to the US, fleeing death, torture, or famine. They have been given Temporary Protected Status.

The administration is planning to remove and deport those back to the same dangers of death or torture from which they fled. Not all of them are deportable yet, but many soon will be. For example, the Washington Post states that in September 2025, temporary protection will end for most Hondurans and Nicaraguans who have been in the United States since 1999. They will have 60 days to leave.

Here are some other numbers from the Deseret News: Only about 5% of migrants have some kind of criminal charge that is not just for entering illegally (usually minor violations). And currently, there are about 5 million immigrants who were once authorized to stay, and are now in “limbo.” In 2013, DACA protected some 540,000 who came here as children and have renewed their status every two years. These have not committed a crime but have become deportable.

My bachelors in 1972 from Michigan State was in criminal justice. Based on that ancient learning on the prevalence of crime and based on many recent sources, my estimate is that of the 17 million or so “illegal aliens” in the United States today, at most 1% or 170,000 are what would be considered real criminals — yet ICE now has the funds to deport 1 million per year.

There is a mismatch between reality and rhetoric.