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Comment by Mikeb85 | Hacker News Reader

> We should call them illegal citizens. Then we can start working towards deporting such criminals as the article demonstrates.

Well international law prevents you from making someone stateless so they get thrown in jail instead. But yes, non-citizens who commit crimes are generally deported.

Also, the US classes crimes as either felonies or misdemeanours (possibly more categories?). In Canada we have indictable crimes, summary offences and things like jaywalking aren't even crimes, just ticketable offences. It's disingenuous of you to compare something like jaywalking to actual crimes.

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The US term you are looking for is “infraction”, which applies to traffic tickets and the like.

Felony is overused at the moment, IMHO. Lawmakers that want to appear tough on crime make felonies out of non-violent crimes.

That was kind of my point, that immigration belongs in the same category as jaywalking and not "actual crimes". In both cases all someone is doing is stepping across a line.

There is a massive difference between a national border and a crosswalk.

International law hasn't stopped the US before. So why bother? We can just deport these illegal citizens to the place that best matches their heritage. Problem solved.

And in the US, jaywalking is a crime. A crime is a crime, which makes jaywalking a crime all the same. If they decided to jaywalk, then they deserve to be deported for their criminal actions.

For reference: Crossing the boarder illegally is a misdemeanor just like jaywalking.

Crossing a federal border to enter a sovereign nation is nothing like jaywalking. Crimes have levels of seriousness, and non-citizens have more serious consequences from committing crimes including deportation.

>International law hasn't stopped the US before. So why bother?

Because we should try to improve the situation not make it worse. I'm also not sure which international law violations you're talking about.

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