More people are being booked for criminal immigration offenses in border states such as Texas, even as the number of people being apprehended as illegal immigrants falls.
A report by Fox News said while the number of illegal immigrants being apprehended has reached a 40 year low, more people are being charged due to a tougher law enforcement operation on the U.S. side of the border.
The number of suspects arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service for federal criminal immigration offenses rose dramatically from 8,777 in 1994 to 82,438 in 2010, according to Fox News.
That’s at a time when fewer people are heading north because of the economic slump in the U.S.A., a decline in the birth rate in Mexico and greater economic stability in some parts of Mexico.
The figures are based on a study by the U.S. Bureau of Statistics. The report also highlights the scale of the increase in manpower on the border.
It says in the seven years up to 2010, the number of border patrol officers nearly doubled, rising from 10,819 to 20,558.
“The number of Mexican citizens serving a federal prison term for an immigration offense increased from 2,074 in 1994 to 17,720 in 2010. Nine out of 10 immigration offenders in federal prison were convicted of illegal re-entry or illegal entry offenses. Ten percent were convicted of alien smuggling,” Fox News reported.
Inevitably many illegal immigrants end up in big cities such as Dallas and Houston. Immigration offenses can often carry a high penalty.
For example, a person who reenters the United States after having been deported for committing certain felonies can face approximately seven years’ imprisonment.
But these cases are not always cut and dry. Broden & Micklesen have been successful in obtaining favorable plea bargains for clients charged with immigration offenses that significantly lower the penalties that a client might face under the federal sentencing guidelines.
Moreover, the firm successfully prosecuted an appeal on behalf of a client who had been sentenced to prison for an immigration offense to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. After winning the appeal , the client was given probation at her re-sentencing.
