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Prosecutions of cross-border drug smuggling cases appear to be falling, even as the quantity of hard drugs being seized along San Diego’s border has been on the rise.
Analyses by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center at Syracuse University, show that federal drug prosecutions were already reaching historic lows under the Trump administration even before Attorney General Jeff Sessions instituted a “zero tolerance” policy at the border, under which virtually everyone caught entering the country illegally is charged with a misdemeanor crime. The surge in prosecutions of those crimes only further crowded out other types of prosecutions at the border – including drugs.
Statistics from the San Diego district attorney’s office show that despite a two-month bump this year in which the number of drug prosecutions surged, it has steadily been receiving fewer drug cases to prosecute from federal agencies and is on track to receive fewer referrals this year than at any point in the past five years.
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