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1 John Scalia & Marika F. X. Litras, Immigration Offenders in the Federal Criminal Justice System, 2000 1 (2002)

handle is hein.immigration/imoffedcjs0001 and id is 1 raw text is: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Revised 10/23/02, th Federal Justice Statistics Program August 2002, NCJ 191745 Immigration Offenders in the Federal Criminal Justice System, 2000 John Scalia Marika F. X. Litras, Ph.D. BJS Statisticians In fiscal year 2000, 16,495 persons were referred to U.S. attorneys for a suspected immigration offense as the most serious charge. This represents a record high in a rising trend following passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. In addition to immigration offenses, U.S. attorneys prosecuted an increased number of noncitizens charged with other offenses - particu- larly drug trafficking offenses. Between 1985 and 2000 the number of nonciti- zens prosecuted by U.S. attorneys for drug trafficking offenses increased from 1,799 to 7,803. The 1996 act authorized increases in law enforcement by the U.S. Immigra- tion and Naturalization Service (INS). Following enactment, the number of INS law enforcement officers increased from 12,403 to 17,654. The Border Patrol received almost two-thirds of the additional officers. About 75% of the increase in referrals to U.S. attorneys for immigration offenses between 1996 and 2000 was observed in the five States that received the greatest number of new INS officers. Seventy-five percent of the immigration suspects referred to U.S. attorneys during 2000 were investigated for During 2000, 16,495 persons were referred to U.S. attorneys for a suspected immigration offense as the most serious charge Federal immigration suspects 18,000 15,000 12,000 9,000 6,000 3,000 0 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 - From 1996 to 2000 the number of persons referred to U.S. attorneys for a suspected immigration offense as the most serious charge more than doubled from 7,100 to over 16,000. During the 10 years prior to 1996 the annual number of suspected immigra- tion offenders ranged from 5,500 to 8,800. - The number of defendants prose- cuted for an immigration offense rose from 6,605 in 1996 to 15,613 in 2000. - 75% of immigration offenders were charged with unlawfully entering (25%) or reentering (50%) the United States; 20% were charged with alien smuggling; and 5% were charged with offenses relating to misuse of visas or other immigration offenses. - 57% of suspected immigration of- fenders were Mexican citizens; 7%, U.S. citizens; 3%, Chinese; and 33% all other or unknown nationalities. Mexicans (87%) and Chinese (93%) were most often charged with unlawful entry or reentry; U.S. citizens (64%) were most often charged with alien smuggling. - The number of immigration offend- ers serving a Federal prison sentence increased from 1,593 during 1985 to 13,676 during 2000. Average time to be served by immigration offenders entering Federal prison increased from about 4 months in 1985 to 21 months in 2000. * 13% of immigration offenders released from Federal prison during 1995-97 were readmitted within 3 years of release: 77% for a new offense, 22% for a supervision viola- tion, and 1% for other reasons.

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