Wall Street Journal:
By Miriam Jordan
March 18, 2014
Undocumented
immigrants convicted of unlawfully re-entering the U.S. are driving
growth in the number of people overall who are sentenced in federal
court, a new study
shows.
From
1992 through 2012, the number of unlawful re-entry convictions rose
28-fold, to 19,463 in 2012, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan
Pew Research Center. Meantime,
the number of offenders of all sorts sentenced in federal courts more
than doubled to 75,867 over those two decades.
In
2012, unlawful re-entry cases accounted for 26% of sentenced federal
offenders, second only to drug offenses at 32%. That is a 13-fold
increase since 1992, when people
sentenced for unlawful re-entry constituted just 2% of the total.
"Immigration has become a huge share of the federal docket," said Mark Lopez, the report's author.
People
convicted of unlawful re-entry have entered or attempted to enter the
U.S. illegally more than once, or tried to re-enter after a previous
deportation.
For
decades, people apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol after trying to
enter the U.S. illegally were released in Mexico or ordered to appear in
immigration court for
civil proceedings. The Bush administration initiated a policy that made
illegal re-entry a crime punishable with prison time to discourage
immigrants from sneaking into the U.S. again. The average incarceration
is two years.
The
policy, known as Operation Streamline, has continued during the Obama
administration. Those who back a stringent policy on immigration applaud
the policy, which they
say has contributed to the recent decline in illegal immigration.
Critics
say the policy strains U.S. courts and undermines the due process of
immigrants. They attribute the decline to the U.S. economic downturn and
violence along the
Mexican border.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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