Today the highest court in the state of Massachusetts ruled that an Illegal immigrant cannot be arrested unless they face some kind of criminal charge.
Is that literally what the MA law states? Have you a copy of the legislation that you can share with us?
Massachusetts cannot hold immigrants so U.S. can detain them: state top court This is just the article about the law, the Supreme Judicial Court might not have an actual legislative bill on it, it was just a ruling that changes how the law is interpreted I believe.
the Supreme Judicial Court [of MA] might not have an actual legislative bill on it
The jurists have to have some piece(s) of legislation -- enacted, or not if they are exercising the principle of judicial review (assuming that power can be effected preemptively) -- which analyze to determine whether the actions under consideration violate it. Courts/jurists, unlike Donald Trump, don't just wake up in the morning and commence to issue fiats.
Correct me if I am wrong, but are people who are tabbed "illegal immigrants" not committing a crime by illegally entering the country?
You are wrong if you, in the absolute, think that
being present in the U.S. with expired documentation authorizing one to be present in the U.S. is a criminal violation. It is not.
It is a civil violation, and because it is a civil violation, people can accurately say things like "an Illegal immigrant cannot be arrested unless they face some kind of criminal charge."
The CRS writes:
The INA [Immigration and Nationality Act] includes both criminal and civil components, providing both for criminal charges (e.g., alien smuggling, which is prosecuted in the federal courts) and for civil violations (e.g., lack of legal status, which may lead to removal through a separate administrative system in the Department of Justice). Being illegally present in the U.S. has always been a civil, not criminal, violation of the INA, and subsequent deportation and associated administrative processes are civil proceedings. For instance, a lawfully admitted nonimmigrant alien may become deportable if his visitor's visa expires or if his student status changes. Criminal violations of the INA, on the other hand, include felonies and misdemeanors and are prosecuted in federal district courts. These types of violations include the bringing in and harboring of certain undocumented aliens, the illegal entry of aliens, and the reentry of aliens previously excluded or deported."
Indeed, the distinction between persons in the U.S. on expired visas (people sometimes referred to as "visa overstays") and persons who never received authorization to enter the U.S. is part of what drives the term "undocumented immigrants." Visa overstays are documented, but their document (visa), their authorization to be in the U.S., has expired. There is a class of person who is in the U.S., was not born in the U.S., but who are here because, as minors, they had no choice but to come with their parents. They are undocumented too, but it's incredibly heartless to cast out such persons who've literally grown up in the U.S. and know no other nation. Some of those people may not even speak the language of their birth-country. Such individuals are in every sense, except formally, Americans for they know of no country besides America.
