Federal authorities are now charging immigrants who do not provide fingerprints, using an old law from the 1940s that had not been enforced for seventy-five years. The Alien Registration Act requires non-citizens to register with the federal government, but it has been ignored for decades. The Trump administration is pushing the enforcement to bring back a World War II-era law requiring almost all U.S. non-citizens to register and give their fingerprints to the government.
As found by Politico, law enforcement in several states, including Louisiana, Arizona, Montana, Alabama, Texas, and Washington, D.C., has started charging people for intentionally failing to register under the Alien Registration Act. This misdemeanor crime is punishable by up to six months in jail or a fine of $1,000. Many of those charged were already in custody and going through deportation proceedings when these new charges were added.
