There are all sorts of things wrong with France's new immigration bill. But it raises the possibility that France will have a tougher punishment for illegal alien border crosses than we do.
The French bill makes illegally crossing the border a crime punishable by a year in prison. Here it's a misdemeanor punishable by a $50 to $250 fine and 6 months in prison. Subsequent offenses cap prison time at 2 years.
We punish immigration fraud much more severely than we do border crossings. And we don't criminalize visa overstays. It's a civil offense. Or other gateways for illegal migration. That means if you don't catch an illegal alien at the border, the argument is that he isn't a criminal.
Criminalizing all forms of illegal presence should be a legislative priority. Sadly, I doubt most members of Congress, or especially, the Senate, have any interest in it. But if there does end up being some sort of DACA deal (which hopefully there won't), it should include total criminalization so that future illegal aliens aren't being treated as a protected group.