According to data obtained by the Transactional Records
Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), the total of federal filings for immigrant
prosecutions reached a new high during the past month. Capped by the 11,454
prosecutions recorded in September 2008, such a staggering number represents an
increase of more than 700% from the same month seven years ago (September
2001). This massive increase in yearly immigrant filings means the total number
of all prosecutions brought by the federal government reached their all-time
high last year of 155,694. By comparison, there were 82,071 filings in fiscal
year 1998 and 60,421 in fiscal year 1988.
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The extraordinarily abrupt shift in government enforcement
policy is highlighted by the following data. During 2001, the first year of the
Bush Administration, the proportion of cases categorized as involving
immigration violations was 18% of federal filings - similar to the proportion
in the final years of the Clinton Administration. By fiscal year 2004, the
first year of Bush's second term, that proportion had increased to over 31%. In
the just-ended fiscal year 2008, however, immigration filings leapfrogged to
51% of the total.
The worst of this prosecution epidemic occurred in five
federal districts strung out along the border with Mexico. In Texas South
(Houston), Arizona (Phoenix), New Mexico (Albuquerque), Texas West (San
Antonio), and California South (San Diego), the largest proportion of federal
immigrant prosecutions occurred. The federal districts with the highest
proportion of immigration prosecution cases were both in Texas: Texas West
(98.7%) and Texas South (91.4%).
Hidden in this unusual surge of both overall and immigration
prosecution numbers, are areas of decline:
White-collar crime prosecutions were down by more than 15%
since the waning years of the Clinton Administration. Individual narcotics
filings also have slumped during the Bush years.
