The Bureau of Justice Statistics said that federal arrests of non-Americans rose 234% from 1998-2018. For U.S. citizens, the percentage rose just 10% over those 20 years.
Immigration expert Jessica M. Vaughan said the increase in arrests is due to increasing prosecution of illegal entry and re-entry by migrants. "Experience has taught the immigration agencies and DOJ that this works to reduce recidivism – in other words, when illegal crossers face some more severe consequence than just being sent back home, they don’t keep doing it," she explained.
Justice was very pointed in comparing U.S. citizens arrested to noncitizens. For example, it noted that while they make up just 7% of the U.S. population, noncitizens account for 15% of the arrests by federal authorities, 24% of drug arrests, 25% of federal property arrests, including 28% of all federal fraud arrests. Vaughan, the director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, said that the statistics and types of crimes disprove claims by pro-immigration advocates that illegal immigrants aren't involved in crimes.
Much as it pains me to say it, we really need to build more prisons. When these jerks break our law regarding immigration with no real consequences, why not break a few more?
Lock 'em up!
After they've served time, we can talk about "repatriation".
