Thread: AZ. has 2% of U.S. population, 19% of federal prosecutions

AZ has 2% of population, 19% of fed prosecutions

Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services
August 19, 2010 12:00 am

PHOENIX - Nearly one in every five cases being brought by federal prosecutors nationwide are filed in Arizona, according to a new report.

The Transactional Research Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University found there were 20,818 prosecutions here in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, out of 109,532 for the entire country.

By contrast, Arizona represents just 2 percent of the national population.

More than four out of every five Arizona prosecutions are related to violations of federal immigration laws - a category of prosecution that is showing an upward trend.

Five years ago, U.S. attorney's offices brought fewer than 3,200 immigration cases to the courts in the first eight months; so far this year the number is more than 17,500.

Drug prosecutors also are up.

None of this impressed Gov. Jan Brewer, who has been engaged in a war of words with the Obama administration about what she said is the failure of the government to secure the border.

"These efforts to arrest and prosecute are good, but they are not enough," said gubernatorial press aide Paul Senseman, who interpreted the statistics as showing things are getting worse, not better.

"The data suggests that the border-security problem is acute in Arizona and growing quite rapidly," Senseman continued.

But Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, said the prosecution statistics do not represent more crime.

He said his predecessors wanted to pursue more cases but lacked the money to hire more lawyers to bring more cases to court.

"They just didn't have the resources," Burke said. The result, he said, was that decisions were made to simply have the person sent back to his or her home country.

"Now you can go back and say, 'Look, this person has a criminal background,' " Burke explained. "It's not just a question of deporting him. This is a question of prosecuting him before he's deported."

The report supports his position, noting the number of full-time federal prosecutors in Arizona went from 111 in September in 2005 to 151 this March - a 36 percent increase here, versus just a 9 percent jump in prosecutors nationwide.

Burke said he just hired five more prosecutors for the Phoenix office and four more in Tucson.

Also, the $600 million supplemental appropriation signed earlier this month for Southwest border security also includes money for additional prosecutors, although Burke said he does not yet know how many will end up in Arizona.

Burke said those changes, coupled with an experimental program in Tucson, will result in even more illegal immigrants being prosecuted.

That program, Operation Streamline, has criminal charges being leveled against some people who entered the country illegally but otherwise have no criminal record and are not repeat offenders. The purpose is to move toward a "zero tolerance" policy, where illegal crossers would realize that being captured would mean more than a bus ride back to the border.

Burke noted, though, there are practical limits, with courts in Tucson able to handle only 70 of these cases a day.

He said the increase in prosecutions of drug couriers and others also is a direct result of more staff.

At one time his office turned away marijuana-smuggling cases involving less than 500 pounds. Those cases were kicked over to county attorneys, who had their own resource shortages. Now, Burke said, there is no minimum. In fact, he said his staff recently brought charges against someone who had just 7 pounds.

Enforcement Efforts Focus on Arizona

Fiscal year AZ prosecutions US prosecutions AZ share

2005 7,905 118,342 7%

2006 12,470 116,739 11%

2007 12,847 117,651 11%

2008 17,759 155,694 11%

2009 26,237 169,612 15%

2010 first 8 months 20,818 109,532 19%

Immigration prosecutions over the years - first 8 months of each fiscal year

FY (8 mos) number

2005 3,189

2006 7,453

2007 7,795

2008 9,260

2009 14,222

2010 17,591

Composition of Arizona prosecutions

84.5%

Immigration

6.8%

Drugs & narcotics

4.1%

White-collar crimes

4.6%

Other

SOURCE: Transactional Research Access Clearinghouse Syracuse University

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/ ... 8ba7e.html

That program, Operation Streamline, has criminal charges being leveled against some people who entered the country illegally but otherwise have no criminal record and are not repeat offenders. The purpose is to move toward a "zero tolerance" policy, where illegal crossers would realize that being captured would mean more than a bus ride back to the border.

Burke noted, though, there are practical limits, with courts in Tucson able to handle only 70 of these cases a day.

Burke seems to be doing the best job he can with the limited resources available to him and that should be recognized. Operation Streamline sounds like a fantastic program! 70 cases a day adds up over time, not to mention the message it sends to the illegal invader community that you might be next!