Surge In Federal Convictions Driven By Immigration Offenses In Past Decades, Says New Study

A new study by the Pew Research Center finds that in the past two decades, a surge in federal convictions has been driven in large part by a leap in the number of immigration-related convictions. From 1992 to 2012, the Center finds, the number of federal prosecutions more than doubled, from 36,564 to 75,867. Over that same period, the number of those convicted for unlawful reentry into the country skyrocketed from 690 cases to 19,463, or from 2 percent of all federal sentences to 26 percent – a surge which accounts for 48 percent of the total growth in federal convictions.

Much of that climb in unlawful reentry prosecutions can be explained by what’s going on at the US-Mexico border, where the vast majority of related apprehensions are made. The report says that Operation Streamline, a program started in 2005 which mandates that illegal border crossers in five high-traffic parts of the border be prosecuted in the criminal justice system – not the immigration system – in what are typically rapid, multiple-person trials, accounts for 45 percent of all federal immigration-related prosecutions along the Southwest border between 2005 and 2012.

And the rise in immigration prosecutions has overwhelmingly affected Latinos, who made up 92 percent of unlawful-entry offenders in 2012. “In 1992, Latinos made up 23% of sentenced offenders,” the Pew Center reports, “by 2012, that share had grown to 48%. Over the same period, the share of offenders who did not hold U.S. citizenship increased from 22% to 46%. Among federal sentenced offenders in 1992, 12% were unauthorized immigrants. By 2012, that share had increased to 40%.”