Putting TRAC to Work
  News Organizations
The Washington Post
October 11, 2018

U.S. judges balk at ICE detention of defendants granted bail under Trump ‘zero tolerance’ push
By Spencer Hsu


A recent decision by a federal judge in Washington highlights the human and legal issues at stake, the case of a dishwasher from El Salvador who has a wife and two children in the District, where he returned after two deportations. The surge in such criminal cases stems from an April 2017 announcement by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions prioritizing Justice Department prosecutions of entry and reentry crimes. More than 60,000 people have faced such criminal charges since then, with twice as many new prosecutions this July, the most recent month for which data is available, compared with the same month in 2017, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which monitors cases. Individuals caught without documents on a first offense can be charged with a misdemeanor, but anyone caught in the United States after a prior deportation can be charged with a felony and face more than a year in prison. Immigration-related prosecutions are now the majority of all federal criminal cases, stretching far beyond states bordering Mexico.


Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
Copyright 2018
TRAC TRAC at Work TRAC TRAC at Work News Organizations News Organizations