How does the government spend its crime enforcement money?

If you were to ask the average person how the federal government is spending its crime-enforcement dollars, he or she would probably say it’s spent on drug enforcement. However, a new report released by the Department of Justice last Thursday shows that the federal government is spending half of its crime-enforcement resources on immigration violations.

The report looked at information from 165,256 arrests from 2014. Of those arrests, 81,000 were for immigration-related offenses. Interestingly, two-thirds of those arrests happened close to the border with Mexico. Many of the arrests made were of repeat offenders.

According to a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, the federal government is focusing a large portion of its resources on immigration enforcement. The spokeswoman’s opinion was that law enforcement and the government need to make an effort to deter future violations consistently.

Since the early 90s, immigration-related arrests have increased dramatically. From 1994 through 1998, immigration arrests doubled. From 1998 to 2006 they doubled another time. Then, from 2006 through 2013, they doubled a third time.

There are many ways that an individual could find him or herself in trouble with the federal government. Immigration crimes are just one of them. In North Carolina, those who are facing federal crimes will face different laws and legal standards than those facing state-level crimes. As such, these individuals may want to contract a criminal defense lawyer who has experience dealing with federal crimes.

A defense lawyer can help North Carolina residents accused of federal crimes to try and reduce the chances of conviction. Alternatively, the can try to reduce the severity of punishments if a conviction is unavoidable.

Source: Free Beacon, “Federal Law Enforcement Resources Overwhelmingly Spent on Immigration Crime,” Natalie Johnson, March 23, 2017