By: Francis D. Wymard, Esq.
About 36% of all criminal cases filed in federal district courts in late 2009 and early 2010 involved immigration-related offenses, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts reported in March. Of 78,013 criminal cases filed in the twelve months ending September 30, 2010, 28,046 (35.9%) involved an immigration crime. This is an 8.7% increase from the prior year. Immigration-related offenses constitute the single largest category of federal crime lodged by prosecutors (drug offenses came in second with 15,785). This data is consistent with a recent U.S. Sentencing Commission report stating that immigration offenses resulting in a sentence in 2009 are now the largest category of federal crime (32.2%) – the first in the Commission’s 20 years of data gathering for which this is true.
Click here to read the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts report.
Click here to read the U.S. Sentencing Commission report.
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