The U.S. Justice Department has defended the quadrupling of immigration prosecutions during the Bush administration’s eight years, reports the Dallas Morning News. “The department has answered the call of Congress and the states along the southwest border to pursue immigration enforcement aggressively,” a spokesman said. Former U.S. Attorney Richard Roper of Dalalas said that after 9/11/2001, “There was an increased emphasis placed on immigration because of the connection to terrorism activity and in response to Congress’ concern that we weren’t protecting the border. The practical effect is it hurt our ability to prosecute white-collar fraud.”
“It is a really quite drastic change in policy, and it clearly has an enormous effect on federal enforcement, especially in Texas and the other border districts,” said David Burnham, co-director of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which analyzed the data. “Other kinds of prosecutions appear to be getting less attention.” Austin-based immigration attorney Dan Kowalski said, “I don’t mind my tax dollars being spent on a direct crime. Criminally prosecuting drywallers on re-entry cases rather than high-level arms dealers would be a joke if it were not a travesty.”