The Senate is considering a bill that would impose mandatory prison sentences on illegal aliens who are deported and then are captured after returning to the country again.  The usual assortment of liberal politicians oppose this...as well as Tea Party supporter Mike Lee of Utah.

Ted Cruz and other Senate Republicans are pushing an aggressive immigration crackdown, proposing tougher penalties against foreigners who repeatedly try to enter the United States illegally.

On one side are Republicans such as Cruz, who’s promoted his so-called Kate’s Law on the 2016 stage, powerful Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama... They are all lobbying for legislation that would enact a mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years for immigrants who try to re-enter the country illegally after being deported.

“It is legislation that ought to pass 100 to nothing,” Cruz told POLITICO in a brief interview. “Every senator, Republican and Democrat, should support keeping this nation safe from criminal illegal aliens.”

But on the opposing side are Senate Republicans such as Mike Lee of Utah — a close Cruz ally — and Jeff Flake of Arizona, who have both criticized mandatory minimums for certain crimes and are skittish about implementing such penalties for undocumented immigrants.

Lee, who has aligned with liberal Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Dick Durbin of Illinois to ease mandatory minimums for certain crimes, is uncomfortable with such binding punishments for immigration offenses, and he’s threatening to oppose sanctuary cities legislation that includes mandatory minimums.

Five years may be harsh where the only crime is re-entering our country illegally.  But our citizens are being slaughtered on our streets by illegal aliens, deported again and again, who return with impunity, knowing there is no effective penalty.  If this law were on the books, it would cause illegals to think twice before re-entering the country.  Now, since they know there is no penalty, they keep coming back over and over, and that includes the drug dealers, the mentally ill, and the rapists and the killers.

It's disappointing that Mike Lee is more concerned about the liberties of illegals who repeatedly break our laws than the safety of United States citizens.

This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.