Half all people sentenced to federal prisons are now Latino; Op. Streamline major cause

Bob Libal's picture September 7, 2011
by Bob Libal

A full half of all people sentenced to federal prisons are now Latino while Latinos make up only 16% of the total population, according to a new report from the Associated Press (Garance Burke, Hispanics new majority sentenced to federal prison, September 6, 2011), reporting on Sentencing Commission data.

Is this because Latinos are now committing more crimes?  No, according to the report, it’s because of the shift towards prosecutions of immigration violations under programs like Operation Streamline:

Sentences for felony immigration crimes, which include illegal crossing as well as other crimes such as alien smuggling, accounted for most of the increase in the number of Hispanics sent to prison over the last decade.

Operation Streamline has ripped countless families apart, cost the government billions of dollars, enriched the private prison industry, caused a judicial emergency, and now is apparently contributing to monumental demographic shifts in the prison system.   Perhaps its time to rethink this program?

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Operation Streamline

Crossing the border was once a matter for civil immigration courts. Now, every day in federal criminal courts along the Southwest border, hundreds of mostly destitute Latino and indigenous Latin American migrants are shackled, charged, convicted and sentenced en masse under the policy called “Operation Streamline.” The program has proven to be a boon for private prisons by funneling tens of thousands of immigrants into federal prisons every year. Through research and advocacy, Grassroots Leadership is fighting for and end to this program.