This week the Congress will take up, the "Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005" (HR 4437). The bill, introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) passed through the Judiciary Committee on Dec. 8th with a party-line vote of 23-to-15.

Containing some of the most sweeping changes to US immigration policy in years, the bill has been opposed by the ACLU, Human Rights Watch and numerous other organizations. One of the key provisions of the bill is the creation of a new federal crime of ""illegal presence" which has been broadly defined as "any violation, even technical, of an immigration law or regulation". As drafted, the bill also classifies this new crime as an "aggravated felony", a federal crime, for immigration purposes. In essence, the bill makes millions of undocumented immigrants already in this country into felons, leaving them subject to treatment as such.

While there are many who will argue that breaking the immigration laws of this country is a criminal act and those who do so should be treated as such, perhaps we need to examine just who some of these soon to be felons might be.