PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 594.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Mar 5, 2008
Border Crossing Deterrence Act of 2008 - Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to expand Operation Streamline (the zero-tolerance prosecution policy for illegal entry and reentry) to all 20 border sectors. Authorizes appropriations.
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to: (1) revise and increase criminal penalties, including establishing mandatory minimum penalties, for an alien's entry into the United States at an improper time or place; and (2) revise criminal penalty and related provisions, and establish mandatory minimum sentences, respecting the reentry of an alien who has been removed from the United States.
Amends the federal criminal code to establish a mandatory minimum criminal penalty of five years for an alien's destruction of U.S. government-installed border barriers or infrastructure.
People & committees
Sen. Sessions, Jeff [R-AL] · R–AL
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 594.
Introduced in the Senate. Read the first time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under Read the First Time.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Aug 14, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze S.2709 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine S.2709 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine S.2709 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine S.2709 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.