The New York Times’ John Schwartz reports that federal prosecutions of immigration violators made a big jump last year — and now make up more than half of all federal prosecutions. Why focus federal prosecutions on immigration violators at a time when white collar chicanery makes the headlines? Because it’s easy!
Much of the spike, immigration experts say, arises from Bush administration efforts to increase immigration enforcement and to speed prosecutions. The administration greatly increased the number of Border Patrol agents and prosecutors, and also introduced a program known as Operation Streamline that relied on large-scale processing of plea deals in immigrant cases in some parts of the country.
The relatively simple cases have become the low-hanging fruit of the federal legal system: Immigration prosecutions, from inception to court disposal, are lightning quick, according to the report. While white-collar prosecutions take an average of 460 days and narcotics cases take 333, the immigration cases are typically disposed of in 2 days.
Perhaps federal prosecutors under the Obama administration will develop a more careful approach and take on tougher cases of white collar and environmental crime. However, the Obama Justice Dept. has so far continued the dubious legal practice of marshalling federal prosecutors to pick the “low-hanging fruit.”