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98% of illegal immigrants caught on border go free

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 7, 2007

EL PASO, Texas - For all the tough talk out of Washington on immigration, illegal immigrants caught along the Mexican border have almost no reason to fear they will be prosecuted.

Ninety-eight percent of those arrested between Oct. 1, 2000, and Sept. 30, 2005, were never prosecuted for illegally entering the country, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data. Those 5.3-million immigrants were simply escorted back across the Rio Grande and turned loose.

The number of immigrants prosecuted annually tripled during that five-year period, to 30,848 in fiscal year 2005, the most recent figures available. But that still represented less than 3 percent of the 1.17-million people arrested that year. The prosecution rate was just under 1 percent in 2001.

The likelihood of an illegal immigrant being prosecuted is "to me, practically zero," said Kathleen Walker, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Federal prosecutors along the southern border have come under pressure from politicians and from top officials in the Justice Department to pursue more cases against illegal immigrants.

But few politicians are seriously suggesting the government prosecute everyone caught slipping across the border. With about 1-million immigrants stopped each year, that would overwhelm the nation's prisons, break the Justice Department's budget and paralyze the courts, immigration experts say.

The Justice Department itself says it has higher priorities and too few resources to go after every ordinary illegal immigrant. Instead, the department says, it pursues more selective strategies, such as going after immigrant smugglers and immigrants with criminal records.

Under federal law, illegally entering the country is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine and up to six months in prison for a first time. A second offense carries up to two years. If an immigrant has been prosecuted and deported and then sneaks back into the country, he can be charged with a felony punishable by up to two years behind bars. Those with criminal records can get 10 to 20 years.

In any case, the number of illegal immigrants arrested at the border is dwarfed by the number who make it through. "For every person we catch, two or three get by us," said T.J. Bonner, the union chief for Border Patrol agents.

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said the department pursues charges if a case involves human smugglers, if an immigrant has a felony record in the United States, or if he has been deported before.

[Last modified April 7, 2007, 01:50:10]