LAST MONTH, a federal judge in Harlingen, Texas, sentenced Juan Carlos Soto, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, to 23 years in prison. That is the longest allowed under the sentencing guidelines. Any lesser sentence would have been incomprehensible.

With his two brothers and five other men, Soto ran an alien smuggling and transportation operation out of Edinburg. Soto’s practice was to smuggle aliens across the Rio Grande, keep them for a short while in safe houses in Edinburg and then move them to points north.