Unless not having identification were itself an illegal act.
Misdemeanor = illegal. Just not very illegal. They catch them, try them, sentence them--and the sentence is usually "go back where you have legal residency status, here, we'll take you there to save you the bother of making your own travel arrangements."
When I was in the Czech Republic my visa expired while I was there. It was good for two days less than I'd be there. I didn't renew my visa; it would have been a royal pain in the butt to do so for two days, esp. since it was august and the office in charge of doing this had very restricted hours.
However, if I'd been caught I wouldn't have faced deportation. I'd have faced jail time and a hefty fine, something that we unenlightened folk don't require of those who break our immigration laws but more enlightened countries do. At least I'm told that we're unenlightened and retrograde in our treatment of unauthorized immigrants while other countries are far more evolved than we are. Haven't noticed it, except when it comes to mass migration of economic immigrants with some refugees.
Then again, we have 11 million or more economic refugees, while Europe's whining over a couple million, yet they're progressive and we're retrograde, at best.
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