Immigrant Detention

Grits for Breakfast  (click here) posted an interesting story this morning on the increasing use of immiogrant detention.  here’s an excerpt:

If the war on illegal immigration hasn’t already become a more expensive government boondoggle than the war on drugs, I bet it soon will. Projecting into the future, the incarceration needs for potential immigration violations, given current and proposed policies, could be limitless. Already, one third of federal prosecutions in the United States are for immigration violations – more, even, than drug crimes. “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recommended the prosecution of 65% more immigration cases in FY 2004 than it did in the previous year,” according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, and that number’s only increasing. According to TRAC’s data, even before the recent raids immigration agents were taking more cases to court than the the FBI, the DEA and the IRS combined. A huge and growing number of these derive from Texas’ Southern District (Houston). Now Johnny Sutton in Texas’ Western District (San Antonio) appears to have climbed on the bandwagon – his office has “filed criminal charges against dozens of undocumented immigrants for crimes that have long been handled with simple deportation,” according to the Austin American Statesman (“Austin seeing change in immigration prosecutions,” April 28). “For undocumented immigrants in the Austin area, the chance of being prosecuted remains small, but the shift means they are more likely to face federal prison time or leave the country with a criminal record if they are caught,” reported Steven Kreytak.

And if immigration “reform” passes, we can expect more and more detention.  the beat goes on!

KJ

KJ