WASHINGTON — Immigration prosecutions rose to record levels in 2009 as the Obama administration kept up aggressive enforcement that began under President George W. Bush.
Nearly 27,000 people faced serious federal charges relating to immigration in 2009, according to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ annual year-end report on the judiciary. More than three-fourths were accused of illegally re-entering the United States after having been sent home before.
Immigration cases increased by about a fifth over the previous year and made up a third of all new criminal filings in U.S. district courts in the government spending year that ended Sept. 30.
The statistics were compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
The number of cases excludes less serious crimes that are handled by federal magistrate judges. In 2008, there were nearly 80,000 immigration cases in all, including those dealt with by magistrate judges, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a private group at Syracuse University.
Georgia: Fewer states seeing widespread swine flu
Health officials say swine flu was widespread in only four states last week, indicating the fall wave of illness is still declining. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta released the new data Thursday. The four states are Delaware, Maine, New Jersey and Virginia. Swine flu was widespread in seven states the previous week. Reported infections have been dropping since a peak in late October, when 48 states reported high levels of sickness.
New Hampshire: Anthrax strains in drums same as in sick woman
The anthrax spores that infected a New Hampshire woman are the same strain as spores found on an electrical outlet and two drums used at a gathering she attended in early December, medical investigators said. Test results confirmed the match between the patient’s strain and the contaminated items at the United Campus Ministry Center in Durham. The results bolster the theory that the woman swallowed anthrax spores propelled into the air during a drum circle there, said Dr. Elizabeth Talbot, adviser to the state Department of Health and Human Services. Two recent U.S. anthrax cases involved drums covered with animal hides, but those involved spores that were inhaled into the lungs or entered through the skin.
North Korea: Vows commitment to nuclear-free Koreas
North Korea reaffirmed its commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula in a New Year’s message today, brightening the prospect that Pyongyang may rejoin the stalled international talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs. The Jan. 1 statement, examined annually for clues to the regime’s policies for the coming year, also said it will strive to develop good relations and friendship with other countries, while calling for an end to hostile relations with the United States. The North has long called for Washington to end hostility toward the regime and said it developed nuclear weapons to deter a U.S. attack. Washington has repeatedly said it has no intention of invading.
Finland: Mall gunman kills five, including ex-girlfriend
A man killed five people, including four in a crowded shopping mall, before returning home and taking his own life Thursday. Police identified the killer as 43-year-old Ibrahim Shkupolli, an ethnic Albanian immigrant from Kosovo who had been living for several years in Finland. Shkupolli killed his ex-girlfriend, a Finnish woman, at her home, and four employees of the Prisma grocery store at the Sello shopping mall in Espoo, six miles west of Helsinki, the capital. The former girlfriend had also worked at the same Prisma store.
Pakistan: Seeks terror charges against Americans
Pakistani police said Thursday they plan to ask a court to charge five Americans arrested in early December with terrorism, and will seek life sentences against them. Authorities have said the the young Muslim men, who are from the Washington, D.C., area, had when they were captured a map of Chashma Barrage, a complex that includes a water reservoir and other structures in the province of Punjab. It is located near nuclear power facilities. A senior police investigator said authorities were “certain” that the five intended to carry out terrorist attacks.
From Herald news services
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