What good would that do, though? Would you propose to imprison them here, or would you still just deport them? And if you made it a felony ... I believe the 14th Amendment says that illegals charged with such a felony would have a right to trial, etc.:
"... nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
(Note that the Supreme Court decided about 100 years ago that the scope of the term any person is very broad, and includes non-citizens.)
All in all, I think the practical difficulties of making illegal entry a felony far outweigh the benefits. As a practical matter, Wouldn't you just end up deporting them ... in exactly the same way we're supposed to do now? There doesn't seem to be much value added.
Now all we have to worry about is the 20 million already here who can't be prosecuted because of the expos facto nature of their "crime".
It's not ex post facto. They're already guilty of illegally crossing the border, and can be deported on that basis.
WOW it's broken thinking like this that has blurred the line of our Constitution that liberals have twisted to the current rule of law. Illegals should have No legal standing under the Constitution and they DEFINATLY don't get ANY under the 14th Amendment. Period (this is just my opinion though....:))
Part of the Feds rational for not enforcing the law is that illegal entry is currently a misdemeanor, by making it a felony it would make it harder for the Feds to ignore. And as to your second point, the appellate court ruled that illegals are not breaking the law by being here. So by making illegal entry a felony those already here would be excluded from the application of that change.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one!
Regards,
GtG