The House Freedom Caucus on Wednesday introduced a five-bill package along with an accompanying resolution to empower law enforcement to crack down on widespread illegal immigration. State Reps. Neil Friske, Steve Carra, Matt Maddock, and James DeSana made the announcement during a press conference Wednesday morning.

The bills would require all Michigan law enforcement agencies to comply with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement detainers, make it a state-level criminal offense to be present in Michigan without official legal status, punish local government entities for not enforcing federal immigration laws, and bar any local policy that would prohibit police officers from questioning a person’s immigration status.

“The federal government has left us no option but to act. There are a historic number of migrants flooding across our international borders while the people in charge of our country would rather cater to radical protestors than enforce immigration law,” said Friske, R-Charlevoix. “If the federal government won’t close the border and begin mass deportations, the burden falls on us to do everything we can to protect our communities. The only way people will start using the legal pathways again is if we deport illegal immigrants and make it crystal clear that the legal option is the only option.”

The dangers of the border crisis reach far beyond southwest border communities. Multiple illegal aliens have been arrested for violent crimes in Michigan in recent months, including murder, soliciting sex with a minor, and sexual assault.

“We are currently incentivizing illegal immigration with taxpayer-funded programs and disincentivizing legal immigration with bureaucratic complications. What we should be doing is embracing legal immigration by eliminating immigration caps and ending mass migration by eliminating the taxpayer-funded incentives to illegal immigration,” Carra said. “Coming here legally starts a person on the road to becoming a law-abiding, productive and responsible individual, whereas illegal immigration often destines an individual to a life of secrecy and servitude.”

A recent Gallup poll found that 28 percent of Americans, a plurality, view immigration as the most important problem facing the country, and 55 percent agree that large numbers of immigrants entering the country illegally is a critical threat to our nation’s vital interests.