ABA Journal: Drug crimes prosecutions could be taking a back seat as the DOJ focuses on unlawful entry

It is hard keeping up with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies and their impacts.  Lorelei Laird for the ABA Journal reports on the “less noticed” impacts of then-Attorney General Jeff Session’s “zero tolerance” policy for immigrants who cross the border without authorization, requiring federal prosecution for every offender caught:

“Statistics compiled by the ABA Journal suggest that as misdemeanor unlawful entry prosecutions rose between 2017 and 2018 in the five federal districts along the southwest border, federal prosecutions for nonmarijuana drug offenses dropped. That’s while apprehensions of people crossing between official ports of entry reached a 17-year low in fiscal 2017, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection drug seizure statistics were largely up, suggesting no lack of referrals.    ”  (emphasis added).