Undoubtedly some of the visa overstays entered with a good faith belief that their stay would be temporary, but my guess would be the vast majority planned to immigrate and lied at some point in the visa issuance or border control process. That would make them make them guilty of criminal improper entry.

The statutory language is in 8 USC § 1325[0] and consists in relevant part of:

"Any alien who... obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation... shall... be fined under title 18 or imprisoned... or both"

It's hard to prove and rarely prosecuted of course, but that doesn't change the fact that many of the overstays are guilty.

[0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1325

I said nothing about illegal immigrants. I’m a non-citizen myself. Here is the relevant law for you and other down voters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Ac...

Obviously, we’re talking about ICE so my comment was meant towards non official border crossings.

That's all well and good - but ICE doesn't just pursue border-crossers -- they regularly arrest and deport people here on Visa overstays..

Many of the people that OPs friend is complaining about receiving aid from San Francisco "activist lawyers" are from Asia, who obviously didn't enter the country illegally, hence, non-criminals.

> That's all well and good - but ICE doesn't just pursue border-crossers -- they regularly arrest and deport people here on Visa overstays..

Isn't visa overstay illegal? Is it not part of ICE job?

Visa overstay is a civil infraction, hence this whole debate - calling everyone who ICE deports “criminals” is factually wrong.

You’re not a criminal if you leave your car parked in a street cleaning zone, you committed a civil infraction.

I think you are answered a slightly different question when you replied to my comment.

"Isn't visa overstay illegal?" is not related to "calling everyone who ICE deports “criminals” is factually wrong."

There is obviously a large range between a parking violations and the discussed immigration actions. Let's be honest from both sides and compare it to something kinda comparable: trespassing. When such a thing occurs, most reasonable people expect the police (ICE) to come and remove them from the private property (country).