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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
IMMIGRATION WATCH: Prosecutions rise in Central Florida
Graphic by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse
Immigration enforcement under the Obama administration "is returning to the unusually high levels that were reached under President Bush," says a report by data analysts at Syracuse University.
In Central Florida, that enforcement includes prosecution and deportations.
Nationwide, federal prosecutions for immigration violations are up 169.2 percent from levels reported in 2005, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
How does Central Florida compare?
Among the Top 10 federal court districts for immigration prosecutions, Florida's Middle District in Orlando and Tampa ranked No. 9 with 42 new prosecutions per month (up from No. 11 a year ago. Florida's Southern district in Miami ranked No. 6 with 81 prosecutions per month. By comparison, two districts in Texas and one in California topped the charts, with ten times the volume of cases as the Florida districts, data compiled by TRAC show. The Texas districts reported more than twice as many cases as the leading district in cause celebre Arizona.
The most substantial growth in prosecutions was seen in cases filed in U.S. magistrate courts, which generally handle less serious charges than the district courts. For Brevard County cases, the nearest immigration court is in Orlando.
In the magistrate courts, the most frequently cited charge (63.4 percent of all filings) was "Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc." In the district courts, the most common charge was "Reentry of deported alien," followed by "Bringing in and harboring certain aliens," TRAC reports.
If magistrate cases are excluded and only Federal District Court cases are counted, the overall increase in immigration prosecutions is 36.1 percent instead of 169.2 percent.
What do you make of those numbers?
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