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As the drug war fades, private-prison companies have shifted to the immigrant-detention business, a trend that accelerated after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Laws on the books requiring mandatory detention of immigrants facing deportation have been interpreted more broadly. The government prosecuted more immigrants criminally for what used to be civil offenses.
Overshadowed by Trump’s sometimes incendiary rhetoric, President Barack Obama is leaving behind a legacy of the biggest law-enforcement immigration crackdown in modern American history. The U.S. keeps a daily average of 41,000 undocumented immigrants in detention, almost double a decade ago. Half the country’s criminal prosecutions now stem from immigration violations, outnumbering drug offenses, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
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