HR3486-119

What This Bill Does

The Stop Illegal Entry Act of 2025 increases criminal penalties for unlawful entry and unlawful reentry. Section 2 amends INA section 275 by raising the maximum imprisonment term for basic unlawful entry from two years to five years. It also adds a new penalty for a person who enters or attempts to enter at an unauthorized time or place, eludes immigration inspection, or obtains entry through willful false or misleading representation or concealment of a material fact, and is later convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year: that person may be fined and must be imprisoned for at least five years and may receive any term of years or life. Section 3 rewrites INA section 276 for people who were denied admission, excluded, deported, removed, or departed under an outstanding order and later enter, attempt to enter, or are found in the United States without advance Homeland Security consent. It sets a general reentry penalty of up to ten years, creates up to fifteen years for people with three or more drug or person-crime misdemeanors, requires a ten-year consecutive sentence for certain terrorism-related exclusions or title V removals, creates up to ten years for repeated removals, and imposes enhanced penalties for aggravated felonies, other felonies, and crimes punishable by more than one year. It also defines removal to include stipulated-removal agreements and updates Attorney General references to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Who Benefits and How

DHS immigration enforcement staff, U.S. Border Patrol, ICE officers, federal prosecutors, Homeland Security consent-review staff, federal judges, and communities prioritizing stricter immigration enforcement benefit because the bill gives prosecutors longer sentencing ranges, mandatory minimum exposure for unlawful entry followed by serious crimes, stricter reentry penalties for repeat or criminal-history cases, and clearer statutory consent authority through the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Noncitizens charged with unlawful entry, noncitizens convicted after unlawful entry, previously removed noncitizens, noncitizens with three qualifying misdemeanors, noncitizens with aggravated-felony convictions, noncitizens with other felony convictions, noncitizens removed on terrorism-related grounds, immigration defense attorneys, federal public defenders, federal courts, immigration courts, the Bureau of Prisons, and families of incarcerated noncitizens bear burdens because the bill raises maximum sentences, creates new minimum imprisonment exposure, makes some sentences consecutive, broadens the reentry penalty framework, and increases incarceration and defense consequences.

Key Provisions

• Raises the maximum penalty for unlawful entry under 8 U.S.C. 1325(a) from two years to five years.
• Creates a five-years-to-life penalty for unlawful entry or attempted entry followed by conviction for a crime punishable by more than one year.
• Rewrites 8 U.S.C. 1326 to set a general unlawful-reentry penalty of up to ten years.
• Provides up to fifteen years for reentry after three or more drug or person-crime misdemeanors.
• Requires a ten-year consecutive sentence for certain terrorism-related exclusions or title V removals followed by reentry.
• Adds enhanced reentry penalties for repeated removals, aggravated felonies, other felonies, and crimes punishable by more than one year.
• Defines removal to include stipulated-removal agreements and updates consent authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security.