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Immigration prosecutions increase sharply


They now account for as much as half the federal criminal caseload. Most sentences average one month.

By Nicole Gaouette

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has sharply ratcheted up prosecutions of illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the last year, with increases so dramatic that immigration offenses now account for as much as half of the nation's federal criminal caseload.
In the widening crackdown, administration officials prosecuted 9,350 illegal immigrants on federal criminal charges in March, a 73 percent increase over prosecutions a year earlier and a record high, statistics released yesterday showed. Those convicted have received jail sentences averaging about one month.

The prosecutions are among the most visible steps in a larger effort that includes work-site raids, increased border patrols, and the use of technology and fences. Often controversial, the patchwork of measures represents the administration's response to failed congressional efforts last summer to overhaul federal laws.

Administration officials and conservative groups have lauded the surge in prosecutions. But critics say data show that illegal immigrants are still trying to enter the country. And some lawyers contend that the push to criminalize illegal immigrants is overwhelming a federal court system with limited resources and higher priorities.

Even so, administration officials announced this month that they would funnel more resources toward the effort, called Operation Streamline.

"The results of this criminal prosecution initiative have been striking," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.

Chertoff's agency and the Justice Department jointly run Operation Streamline, recently announcing a plan to assign 64 prosecutors and 35 staff members to prosecutions along the Southwest border. The operation began as a pilot around Del Rio, Texas, in 2005 and spread to other areas. Under the program, officers and prosecutors practice "zero tolerance," and jail times can range from two weeks to six months.

Chertoff said this works "because these illegal migrants come to realize that violating the law will not simply send them back to try over again, but will require them to actually serve some short period of time in a jail or prison setting, and will brand them as having been violators of the law. That has a very significant deterrent impact."

The statistical analysis released yesterday was compiled by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, considered an authoritative source for such figures. It called the increase "highly unusual."

Operation Streamline's larger aim is to give the administration another tool to use in its crackdown on illegal immigration, said Susan B. Long, a TRAC co-director and Syracuse University professor.

"What it means is that immigration cases are dominating the federal court system these days," Long said. "The volume of cases is really huge. This is a big deal."
Of 16,298 federal criminal prosecutions recorded nationwide in March, immigration accounted for more than half, Long said. The next highest number of prosecutions was for drug offenses at 2,674, followed by 702 prosecutions for white-collar crime.

Clearinghouse researchers found that all but 142 of the 9,350 new federal immigration prosecutions in March occurred in certain areas along the border with Mexico. Texas was most active, followed by Southern California