Christie needs to go back to law school.
“Entry without Inspection” (i.e. entering the country without going through a port of entry and being interviewed by an immigration officer) is a CRIMINAL offense.
An “overstay” is someone who entered with an inspection and then stayed over the authorized period of his visa - like most of the Irish illegals in Boston. Overstays are civil offenses.
All those people who snuck across the US border are CRIMINALS.
Is there any way to recall Christopher Christie? He sound like a buddy of Johnny Sutton.
Entry without inspection is a misdemeanor offense, “and the offense is completed once an individual has entered the country.” This means that unless an individual is observed entering the country unlawfully, it is no longer prosecutable.
Importantly, that is the law as it now stands, so the NJ prosecutor is correct. The U.S. Attorney’s Office shouldn’t be doing anything unless they *can* do something. If it isn’t a prosecutable offense, they can’t prosecute.
Just like a cop on the street can’t arrest someone because someone else asks the cop to arrest them. “What did they do?”, asks the cop. “I saw them jaywalk here last week.”
However, just because the U.S. Attorney’s Office can’t do anything, doesn’t mean that ICE can’t do anything. So they are the ones to talk to.
And more importantly, the law can be changed so the US Attorney’s Office *can* do something.