Illegal re-entry is the top federal criminal charge

By Elizabeth Aguilera
7:18 p.m., June 20, 2011

Illegal re-entry into the United States accounted for nearly one-quarter of all federal prosecutions and almost half of all immigration prosecutions in the first half of the year, making it the top federal criminal charge, according to Justice Department data.

The statistics, analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, showed that convictions under the felony law, typically resulted in an average sentence of 14 months in prison. Undocumented immigrants who are apprehended and have been previously processed into the immigration system for illegal entry or other immigration related violations face charges of illegal reentry.

Illegal entry, when an individual is caught for the first time entering the U.S. illegally, is the second most common immigration crime and is considered a misdemeanor, which averages a sentence of one month in custody, according to the report.

The Justice Department data showed 18,552 new prosecutions in the first half of 2011 for illegal re-entry, according to the Clearinghouse report. If the trend continues the figures for the year are expected to rise 3.5 percent compared to fiscal year 2010 when there were 35,836 prosecutions total for this charge, according to the analysis.

Read the report: Illegal Reentry Becomes Top Criminal Charge
http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/251/

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011 ... al-charge/