Thread: Immigration cases fuel rise in Latino federal inmates

Immigration cases fuel rise in Latino federal inmates


By Hiram Soto
Enlace Staff Writer
February 19, 2009

The percentage of federal offenders who are Latino has risen dramatically in the past two decades, driven in part by an increase in illegal immigration and enforcement of immigration laws, according to a study released yesterday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

While the number of federal offenders in general doubled from 1991 to 2007, the number of Latinos who were sentenced for federal crimes accounted for more than 54 percent of the growth, the study says.

Latinos accounted for 40 percent of all federal offenders in 2007, up from 16 percent in 1991.

Immigration offenses accounted for nearly half of all federal convictions, followed by drug crimes at 37 percent, according to Pew, a national nonpartisan think tank.

The Immigration Policy Center, a pro-immigrant organization, responded to the report by questioning the resources that the federal government is dedicating to prosecuting lower-level immigration cases.

In San Diego, immigration lawyer Lilia Velasquez said changes to immigration laws in 1996 made it easier for the government to arrest and prosecute undocumented immigrants.

“There have been more raids, more arrests and more prosecutions of people using someone else's Social Security number, and those are federal crimes,â€

While the number of federal offenders in general doubled from 1991 to 2007, the number of Latinos who were sentenced for federal crimes accounted for more than 54 percent of the growth, the study says.

What else needs to be said about these people....

Illegals=American jobs lost=criminals=drug dealers=trashing our country. The solution to the equation is use the following strategies: enforce,deport and use attrition

To clean up the country. Should make it more streamlined to deport people though.

Uh Oh, LaRaza isn't going to like these statistic's sending this too Lou Dobbs

This group is filling our prisons to over capacity.