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By:  Pete Kasperowicz

A group of House Republicans is calling for up to six months imprisonment, criminal fines, or both for any immigrant who knowingly enters the U.S. illegally.

Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, and six other Republicans proposed the legislation in order to boost security in the face of continued illegal entry through the southern U.S. border. He proposed two other bills that are also aimed at creating disincentives for people to enter the country illegally.

"When this legislation is enacted, every illegal alien over the age of eighteen will be prosecuted wherever they're found, criminal illegal aliens will be deported swiftly after serving their sentences, and existing law will be enforced with zero tolerance from Brownsville to San Diego," he said.

Culberson's bill requiring imprisonment is the Interior Immigration Enforcement Act. The two-page bill simply states that "any alien who is age 18 or older" and enters the country "shall be fined ... or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both."

Follow up offenses would result in more fines or a sentence as long as two years, or both." It would require prosecution wherever illegal immigrants are found, and would not require officials to first discover where they entered the country.

Another one of Culberson's bills, the Zero Tolerance for Illegal Entry Act, would require all illegal immigrants to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

A third bill, the Criminal Alien Detention and Removal Act, would require illegal immigrants convicted of a felony to be automatically deported by U.S. Marshals after they serve their sentence.

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