By Maria Ortiz
Jun 25, 2024, 17:47 PM EDT
A report released Tuesday by Syracuse University revealed that More human trafficking and immigration crimes are being criminally prosecuted under President Joe Biden.
Of less than 1,500 monthly indictments issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in January 2021, criminal cases jumped to nearly 3,000 in March 2024, with certain downward fluctuations in some months of that period, according to the analysis of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a group of researchers from the New York university.
The data shows that prosecution levels are now have increased by 65%, three years after Biden took office.
The latest figures available – from February to April 2024 – show A 21% increase in charges for immigration-related crimescompared to the same period last year.
The report expresses that these increases may continue, given the Department of Justice’s announcement in May 2024 to intensify efforts to prosecute human trafficking and immigration-related crimes at the US-Mexico border.
The accusations in the courts have been recorded in the three categories of crimes analyzed: illegal entry into the US, re-entry after removal or deportation, and charges of knowingly assisting an alien to enter or remain in the country illegally.
However, there has been a further increase in criminal proceedings against immigrants who reenter the country irregularly after being deported or expelled. TRAC researchers recorded a 57% increase in the first three months of the Biden Administration (February-April 2021) and in the last three-month period (February-April 2024).
“These crimes have consistently accounted for the largest proportion and now account for around two-thirds of all immigration criminal proceedings,” the report states.
Most federal charges for immigration crimesn occur in the five districts along the US-Mexico border, with the Western District of Texas, which includes the cities of El Paso and San Antonio, driving most of the recent increase in the filing of these misdemeanors, followed by Arizona.
The other three districts (the Southern District of Texas, the District of New Mexico and the Southern District of California) have remained relatively low in federal charges for these crimes.
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