Driven by a crackdown on illegal immigration, Hispanics now make up the largest percentage of offenders sentenced in federal courts, according to a study released Wednesday.
Hispanics accounted for 40 percent of all people sentenced to federal crimes in fiscal year 2007, even though they made up only 13 percent of the U.S. adult population, according to the study by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. In fiscal year 1991, Hispanics made up 24 percent of all sentenced offenders.
The study’s authors attribute the change in part to the increase in the undocumented immigrant population and federal enforcement programs, which target illegal crossers along the Southwest border.
In 2007, nearly half of Hispanic offenders were sentenced for an immigration offense, up from one in five in 1991. Immigration offenses represented nearly a quarter of all federal convictions in 2007, up from 7 percent in 1991.
“There was a very sharp rise of immigration offenses as a share of all offenses,” said Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center.
Among those sentenced for immigration offenses in 2007, 80 percent were Hispanic, according to the report.
The study shows that the government “is making more of an effort to try to go after people who have repeatedly come to the U.S. illegally,” said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., up from about 4 million in 1992.
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