Pubdate: Thu, 29 Sep 2005
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Eric Lichtblau, NY Times

IMMIGRATION RAIDS SURGE AFTER SEPT. 11

Anti-Terror Sweeps Surpass Drug Busts

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutions for immigration violations more 
than doubled in the past four years, surpassing drugs as the most 
frequently pursued federal crime, according to new data released 
Wednesday by a private research group. The change reflects a major 
shift in priorities since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Immigration prosecutions surged to 38,000 last year from 16,300 in 
2001, as federal authorities mounted a crackdown on illegal 
immigration as a way of deterring terrorism, according to the 
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research group 
connected to Syracuse University that compiled the data.

Prosecutions for drug crimes have begun to decline, dropping to 
30,988 last year from 32,753 in 2001, the new data showed. The 
Syracuse group's data showed that immigration prosecutions passed 
drug crimes last year as the crime most frequently prosecuted by 
federal officials.

The study, analyzing half a million federal prosecutions, offers 
perhaps the firmest evidence to date of the refocusing of federal law 
enforcement priorities since the Sept. 11 attacks toward illegal 
immigration, terrorism-related offenses and gun crimes and away from 
drugs and white-collar crime. Prosecutions for white-collar crime 
dropped to 7,000 cases last year from 9,500 in 2001, the study found.

"This is a substantial shift any way you measure it," said David 
Burnham, co-director of the research group, which collects and 
analyzes federal data on law enforcement and financial issues. "We're 
seeing choices being made by United States attorneys and by the 
president about what's important and what's not, and clearly, the 
administration has changed the priorities of the federal law 
enforcement machine."

The Justice Department has often tangled with the Syracuse research 
group over its methodology and access to law enforcement data. Paul 
Bresson, a department official, said the group's numbers were 
"misleading" because a significant number of misdemeanor immigration 
prosecutions in Texas that had not previously been counted were included.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman