The point of the rhetoric of sitting in jail for six months is to give pause to people who are considering crossing the border. That was part of the reason why Trump was so hard on immigration issues on TV but the actual policies were very humane and for the benefit of all parties involved. The TV rhetoric scared people away from crossing thereby stemming a lot of the "moral" border crossing. By moral I mean non-coyotes drug dealers, human traffickers, just people who are looking for a better life. I know that is questionable definition of moral but I dont have a better word to use.