Federal prosecutions of immigration
crimes nearly doubled in the last fiscal year, reaching more than
70,000 immigration cases in the 2008 fiscal year, according to federal
data compiled by a Syracuse University
research group. The emphasis, many federal judges and prosecutors say,
has siphoned resources from other crimes, eroded morale among federal
lawyers and overloaded the federal court system. Many of those other
crimes, including gun trafficking, organized crime and the increasingly
violent drug trade, are now routinely referred to state and county
officials, who say they often lack the finances or authority to
prosecute them effectively.
Bush administration officials say the government’s focus on
immigration crimes is an outgrowth of its counterterrorism strategy and
vigorous pursuit of immigrants with criminal records.
Immigration prosecutions have steeply risen over the last five
years, while white-collar prosecutions have fallen by 18 percent,
weapons prosecutions have dropped by 19 percent, organized crime
prosecutions are down by 20 percent and public corruption prosecutions
have dropped by 14 percent, according to the Syracuse group’s
statistics. Drug prosecutions — the enforcement priority of the Reagan,
first Bush and Clinton administrations — have declined by 20 percent
since 2003.
“I have seen a national abdication by the Justice Department,” said Attorney General Terry Goddard of Arizona.
