Syracuse, N.Y.--July 25--The doubling of
prosecutions recommended by the Immigration
and Naturalization Service(INS) has led to
a major increase in the overall number of
federal criminal court cases, according to
data obtained by the Transactional Records
Access Clearinghouse(TRAC).
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Justice Department data show that the
annual number of INS prosecutions jumped
to 14,616 in 1998 compared to 7,335 in
1992.
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This hike, particularly large in the last
year, was a major factor in the sharpest
annual rise in the overall number of
federal prosecutions since 1971. All told
there were 82,071 such actions in
1998,14% more than the previous year.
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With this rise, the INS now ranks second
in generating the largest number of
federal convictions among all federal
agencies, only slightly below the volume
produced by the FBI.
For additional enforcement information --
about individual federal judicial districts
and the nation as a whole -- go to
http://trac.syr.edu/media. There you will
be offered two choices. One option is
TRAC's new free public web site on the INS.
The second option is TRACFED with complete
1992-1998 data about all federal
enforcement activities, including INS,
detailing the historic jump in federal
prosecutions nationwide. TRACFED is a
subscription service only available to news
organizations. In addition to enforcement
data, it offers quick access to demographic
and economic information by country, state
and federal judicial district, as well as
federal staffing information. The INS
information is embargoed for Monday, July
26, to give news organizations time to
contact INS and Justice Department
officials, judges and immigration rights
groups for possible comment.
While the growth in INS prosecutions was
unusually large, the increase in prison
time given those convicted as a result of
the agency's investigations was even
larger. In 1998, the median sentence --
half got more, half got less -- was 12
months. In 1992, the median INS sentence
was only two months.
The data also show that a much higher
proportion of immigration referrals get the
green light from federal prosecutors than
any of the other Justice Department program
categories. In fiscal year 1998, 93% of
immigration referrals, almost all of them
from the INS, were accepted for
prosecution. That compared with 82% for
drugs, 73% for weapons, 48% for official
corruption, 43% for white collar crime and
5% for civil rights.
INS cases require far less time to
prosecute. The 1998 median time from
referral to disposition for the INS was 87
days. That compared with 483 days for the
IRS, 310 for the ATF, 296 for the FBI and
272 for the DEA. Although many factors may
be involved, it seems likely that
individuals subject to INS investigations
typically have fewer resources to contest
their charges than those targeted by the
IRS or the FBI.
The markedly tougher stance of INS
enforcement in the last few years was not
limited to criminal matters. Data provided
TRAC by the INS indicated that from 1993 to
1998 there had been a fourfold increase in
expelled aliens -- 172,312 "removals" in
1998 compared with 42,471 in 1993.
The sharp increase in all enforcement was
the result of decisions by the Clinton
Administration and Congress to vastly
increase the size of the INS, to toughen
selected immigration laws, and to push
federal prosecutors to pay more attention
to the subject. Data from the Office of
Personnel Management show that there were
29,420 full-time employees in the INS in
1998. In 1992, there were only 17,368.
Reports from the General Accounting Office
have said that so far there is no way to
measure whether these changes have affected
the overall number of illegal aliens
entering the United States. As of 1996, the
INS estimated there were about 5 million
undocumented immigrants residing in the
United States and that this population was
increasing by about 275,000 each year.
