A little discussed report by the United States Sentencing Commission has been released with an astonishing figure: Of the more than 2,200 people who received federal sentences for drug possession in fiscal year 2014, almost three-quarters of them were illegal immigrants. In addition, illegal immigrants reportedly made up more than one-third of all federal sentences for all crimes.
Unfortunately, the comments of Donald Trump have sucked the oxygen out of the public debate on the significance of such crime trends. According to new data from the United States Sentencing Commission. While crimes by illegal immigrants are slightly down (38.6 percent of all federal sentencings in 2013 but 36.7 percent in 2014), they still represent a huge percentage of such offenses in the federal system given that they represent an estimated 3.5 percent of the U.S population. There is available data from the states, though individual states likely have figures.
This includes 20 percent of the kidnapping/hostage taking sentences in 2014 and 12 percent of the murder sentences. Another 19.4 percent of national-defense related sentences are attributed to illegal immigrants.
If you combine both illegal and legal aliens, the population represents almost half of all sentences — 42 percent of all federal sentencing in 2014.
These figures are according to the Washington Examiner and have been reported on other sites. I went and looked at the Sentencing Commission report and confirmed the figure on non-citizens but I could not locate the specific numbers on illegal immigrants. If anyone has a link, it would be great to add it. Here are the general sourcebook tables from the United States Sentencing Commission.
In Shakespeare’s As You Like It, the court jester, Touchstone, speaks the truths no one else dare say. Although much more eloquently than The Donald.
There goes that Trump again! Telling people what they don’t want to know! How dare he! That simply isn’t done!
I thought most folks here were a bit more intelligent than they are proving to be. I too am against the current policy on illegals, but as for Trump’s analysis, it is pure BS. The real metric for verfiying his statement is what proportion of illegals are criminals with crimes other than illegal entry. That is still a miniscule part of that population and does not validate his statement that most of the illegals are crooks.
Whoosh, there goes the Latino vote. Paint them all as criminals, yep that’s the ticket. The Republican debates are going to be fun to watch. Trump is his own three ring circus.
Note the word “federal” here. Drug offenses and other such crimes are almost always state/local matters, so the feds are only involved at the edges of the phenomenon, i.e., exactly where illegal immigrants are. So high rates of federal sentencing (vs.state/local) is just what you’d expect. Just don’t put that on the same chart as overall drug offenses in all jurisdictions, as the articles in the examiner and elsewhere have tended to do.
I am gonna vote for Trump. “Early and often”. If Obama doesnt close the borders then I am going to propose a Constitutional Amendment to close the border between Hawaii and the rest of the states.” Jeso what a donkey. They ought to make the donkey the symbol of the Democratic Party. What? BarkinDog said that they already have that as the symbol.
Let’s not forget that the illegals who commit crimes here are citizens…of their native country. We’ve been subsidizing their governments by keeping them off their streets, while they terrorize ours. But many will walk, literally, by being deported instead of being incarcerated here, which saves us money. Trouble is, somebody else – Kathryn Steinle – paid for that policy with her life.
Here’s a suggestion. Try and sentence the illegals in our courts, but pay their own governments for the cost of their incarceration THERE. This will still be cheaper than than a U.S. prison, and they’ll be back in their native country, where they belong. If murderer Sanchez had been in a Mexican prison, he wouldn’t have been able to sneak back in here five times.
The illegal immigration problem can be solved in one easy step. Make employers E verify a employees citizenship or green card or face a substantial fine. This will drive illegals back home, raise wages (because employers will have to pay more for help),reduce hit and run accidents and lower rents. We wouldn’t need a wall because there would no desire to immigrate here illegally.
Right on cue. Anyone daring to state facts will be silenced, or attempted to be silenced, by calling them names, such as bigot, homophobe, racist, etc. How sickeningly predictable. Note, no addressing the facts. No addressing the statistics. Just an attack on those they attempt to silence. Typical handbook stuff. Nice try.
Bam bam
It seems to me like liberals have come up with a real life version of Magic the Gathering.
They find an opponent like Trump and assemble a deck of race-transgender-sex grievance cards and attack his mana.
Well isn’t that something. Donald Trump has been right all along. The politically correct elitists yelling racist have been wrong.
Tobin feeding raw meet to the bigots
Jomo arigato,
More like Ahnold in Predator,”You dropped…us into a meat grindah!!!”.
No one is in the criminal court system, accused of a myriad of felonies–many often being violent crimes–because someone decided to leave his country and sew whatever limited valuables he possessed into the hem of his clothing. Spare us the violins. Most of our grandparents and great grandparents came to this country from foreign lands. They came here legally, worked like dogs and taught their children to love, respect and worship the US. They didn’t clog the criminal system. Get a grip. All immigrants are not equal.
Assume you are leaving terrible conditions for better conditions and you have very little money. You sew jewels into the hem of your clothing in hopes that you might be able to sell them when you get to America. Same for Hispanic immigrants. They take what they can get, what they can hide in their clothing, and what they might be able to sell. Drug dealers are more desirable as friends and neighbors than are bombastic arrogant moronic heirs.
Doglover,
You should check out a book called Lines and Shadows by Joseph Wambaugh.
Its the true story of San Diego cops who went undercover on the border in order to arrest the people robbing and raping people crossing into the US.
Nick
While you are awaiting that revolution, in Mexico, the borders need to be sealed. We shouldn’t have to hope that the good Mexican people, as you call them, revolt. We need to deal with the here and now, as it pertains to the impact these criminals are producing in this country. Anyone daring to publicly state that is toast, at least politically.
“…the comments of Donald Trump have sucked the oxygen out of the public debate…”. Are you kidding me? Without his comments there would be NO discussion at all. People in this country don’t even use “illegal” with immigrant anymore. Instead it’s “undocumented”!
Warspite,
I guess when a woman gets raped its not illegal until its reported, merely undocumented.
Most law abiding immigrants, both legal and illegal, are being defined by the criminal element in their community. Mexico has become what Colombia was in the 70’s-90’s. The good people of Colombia took back their country from the narco terrorists. When Colombia was the mecca of drug production and transport, we had an ocean between us. With Mexico now being the haven, it is in our yard. The mysterious “Moderate Muslims” have allowed the criminal element in their culture define them. I’ve lost all hope on that front. I remain hopeful good Mexican people will rise up and retake their proud heritage.
Say what you will about Donald Trump–call him an egotistical, bombastic loudmouth–but he has been vilified in the media for daring to speak out about the crime illegals, from Mexico, in particular, bring to this country. Statistics reveal what he said to be true and accurate, but statistics don’t count. Only political correctness counts. Our criminal courts are flooded with illegals accused of committing crimes. It’s the forbidden topic, and any public figure daring to speak on the taboo subject will get his due. Aside from being castigated as racist and bigoted, how can we punish him for daring to speak the truth? Have Macy’s refuse to carry his line of products? Done. Have Serta refuse to carry a line of mattresses bearing his name? Done. Refuse to air his beauty pageant? Done. Have Mayor De Blasio claim that he will now re-review Trump’s contracts with New York City? Done. That’ll teach any other potential candidates to tow the line.
As far as I’m concerned this give credibility to what Donald Trump said. Still not likely to vote for him, but unless other face up, I will change my mind.
This illustrates the inequality of our justice system. It often depends on who are committing what kind of crimes. The poor, powerless and minorities receive more attention than, say, those who are white-collar criminals tanking the world economies or those who authorize and commit war crimes. Lady Justice has selective blindness.
I doubt that there are any figures on illegal vs legal immigrants since there is no functional difference between the two. Once they finish their sentence, presumably they will be deported no matter their immigration status. Those who are serving time in Federal prison, really are major felons since most drug cartels know how much a load will not trigger prosecution for bringing drugs into the US. It is not too surprising that illegals constitute such a large out of proportionate group of prisoners. They spit on our immigration laws, so why should they follow any laws. With the advocates of amnesty, one has to ask how many felonies will disqualify an illegal from getting a pass and which ones?
I’ve heard people quote a study that said illegals commit less crimes than natives.
Is that based on convictions? A lot of PD’s turn illegals loose for DUI’s and other low level crimes.
Also, aren’t illegals hiding in the shadows and reluctant to report crimes commited by others in their circumstance?