•    "The government’s approach to charging migrants with these entry-related offenses imposes heavy costs on both the migrants themselves and the federal government. The prosecution of individuals fleeing persecution or torture harms family members with whom the individual traveled and was apprehended. Spouses are often separated, as are parents from their minor children. Lawyers increasingly have observed federal prosecutions of adult family members for entry-related offenses which result in those family members being sent to a federal prison away from their children. The children are then placed with federal authorities at shelters for unaccompanied minors or in foster homes, while parents receive little or no information about their location and condition. With high conviction rates for these federal offenses, many migrants are subjected to mandatory incarceration in federal prison for months or longer. For these individuals, a conviction can impede current and future attempts to migrate lawfully or obtain asylum. For the federal government, such prosecutions are an extremely costly use of law-enforcement resources and have no demonstrated deterrent effect on future migration." Source: American Immigration Council

•    "Immigration prosecutions devastate families and communities by detaining and deporting people with minimal due process protections and without consideration for their long-standing ties to the United States. Black and Brown communities are disproportionately affected due to racial profiling and discriminatory policing practices in the criminal legal system which lead to disproportionately harsh immigration penalties for people who are not U.S. citizens. Immigration prosecutions also funnel billions of tax dollars to private prison companies that profit from incarcerating people for immigration convictions and during deportation proceedings." Source: National Immigration Justice Center

•    "Over the past several years, states and localities around the country have increasingly considered and used state and local laws to impose criminal penalties on undocumented immigrants. At the same time, the federal government has increasingly chosen to criminally prosecute individuals who enter or reenter the United States illegally rather than rely on the extensive civil enforcement scheme under the federal immigration laws. In public policy debates about criminalizing undocumented immigrants, anti-immigrant lawmakers and groups often throw around terms like ‘criminal alien’ and other misleading rhetoric and statistics suggesting that all undocumented immigrants are criminals or a dangerous threat to the community. Such language can distort debates about the appropriate use of local criminal laws and of federal prosecutorial resources. Local and state officials also often misunderstand the nature of the criminal provisions in federal immigration law and the authority of states and local governments to criminalize undocumented status." Source: American Civil Liberties Union