Thread: Study: Illegal immigrants make up 20% of felony sentences

Study: Illegal immigrants make up 20 percent of felony sentences

by Michael Kiefer - Oct. 2, 2008 07:02 PM
The Arizona Republic .

County Attorney Andrew Thomas on Thursday released a study showing that illegal immigrants comprised nearly 20 percent of all defendants sentenced for felony crimes in Maricopa County in 2007, even though illegal immigrants only make up an estimated 9 percent of the county population.

The numbers, which were generated by the county attorney's office, reinforce popular beliefs about illegal immigration and crime but contradict the findings of some sociologists and journalists.

The Republic reported earlier this year, for example, that only 10 percent of bookings into Maricopa County jails in the last six months of 2007 were subject to holds by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. That percentage was based on numbers provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office-that the office later tried to refute.
Similarly, a study released last week that was conducted by researchers at Arizona State University on behalf of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors found that only 10 percent of the county jail inmate population in 2007 were undocumented immigrants, two percent legal immigrants and 88 percent U.S. citizens.

But the study released by Thomas on Thursday, which focuses on persons who are actually convicted, says that 18.7 percent of convicted felons in Maricopa County last year were undocumented immigrants.

"This landmark research belies the claim that illegal immigration and crime are not related," said Thomas, reading from his own press release. "To the contrary, our border crisis is directly fueling Arizona's crime rates. While all of us should welcome legal immigrants as a source of great economic and social vitality for our country, we must at the same time acknowledge the high price we are paying for illegal immigration."

In the past, Thomas' office has balked at providing numbers of illegal immigrants prosecuted for crimes other than those related to the state's human smuggling statutes, and Thomas denied that the unexpected release of the study was politically timed-even though Thomas has again emphasized his fight against illegal immigration in his campaign for re-election this November.

"I understand there is great passion related to the illegal immigration debate," he said, "and I am not trying to incite anything or pour gasoline on the flames, but the public has a legitimate right to know whether there is a link between crime and illegal immigration."

And indeed it has been a difficult link to quantify because law enforcement agencies have been loath to document such trends. Until the passage of Proposition 100, the law that denies bond to illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes, and until sheriff's deputies became certified to conduct investigations into citizenship, it was nearly impossible to do so.

According to Thomas' findings, in 2007, illegal immigrants accounted for:


• 12.8 percent of aggravated assault convictions


• 33.5 percent of drug convictions


• 35.8 percent of kidnappings


• 13 percent of robberies


• 20.3 percent of felony DUIs


• 20.7 percent of crimes with weapons, and


• 10.6 percent of murders and manslaughters.

Not surprisingly, the percentage numbers were higher for crimes generally associated with illegal immigrants, such as:


• 96 percent of smuggling cases


• 44.4 percent of forgeries and frauds, and


• 85.3 percent of false ID convictions
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... 03-ON.html

Report details impact of illegal immigration, crime

Jim Cross/KTAR

The county attorney has released a new report outlining just how out of control the states illegal immigration problem is and the crime associated with those who are here illegally.

County Attorney Andrew Thomas says nine percent of the states population is here illegally. The number believed to be around 619,000 people according to the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy.

Almost 22 percent of the felons sentenced in Maricopa County Superior Court are illegal immigrants.

Thomas says almost 17 of the violent crime is linked to illegal immigrants at a cost to citizens of $59 million last year alone. More than 10 percent of the murders, 44 percent of forgery and fraud cases, 36 percent of kidnappings can be traced to illegal immigrants.

Eighteen percent of property crimes were committed by people in the county illegally and that accounts for another $24 million in costs to citizens.

Additionally, the Federation for American Immigration Reform says incarcerating illegal immigrants cost $80 million in 2004. That has grown to approximately $114 million.
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