EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The Western District of Texas has led the nation in federal criminal prosecutions for the past two years, Department of Justice and U.S. Courts data shows.
A total of 13,360 cases were filed between Oct. 1, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2023, in federal courthouses in border cities like El Paso and Del Rio, and the urban centers of Midland, Austin and San Antonio, according to annual reports from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
In second was the Southern District of Texas, where the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed 11,614 cases during that period. The Southern District includes the border cities of Laredo and Brownsville and cities to the north and east like Corpus Christi, Houston and Galveston.
By comparison, the Southern District of New York that encompasses Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City filed 1,092 criminal cases during that two-year period. The Northern District of Illinois that includes Chicago reported 752 criminal filings, the same federal court data set shows.
Passenger vehicle traffic at the Bridge of the Americas port of entry in El Paso, Texas. (Border Report file photo)
Illegal immigration arrests and drug trafficking activity, coupled with extensive scrutiny and technology at ports of entry from Mexico account for the disparity in otherwise peaceful border communities, a law enforcement expert told Border Report.
“When I look at districts along the border, the first thing I ask is, ‘How many of those are immigration cases?’ You will always get a lot of (illegal entry without inspection) and improper re-entry” by migrants, said Victor M. Manjarrez Jr., former U.S. Border Patrol chief agent in El Paso and Tucson, Arizona.
Drug, immigration cases cram courts
Almost a third of the 66,147 criminal cases filed last year by the U.S. Attorney’s Office nationwide were immigration related. More than 14,000 consisted of charges against foreign nationals who entered the country illegally after at least one previous removal.
But another 4,928 involved migrant smuggling. That includes drivers at ports of entry caught trying to sneak in unauthorized individuals, commercial trucks loaded with hidden passengers, and American teens speeding away from law enforcement with Central Americans packed in the back seat. Many who rented out their homes or procured hotel rooms to “stash” unauthorized foreign nationals waiting for transportation also are part of the stat.
In El Paso, the U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed improper re-entry, migrant smuggling and drug offenses are the most common cases prosecuted here.
“I you look at El Paso and Juarez (Mexico), you’ve got a region of 2 million people. The complexity of smuggling is more pronounced,” Manjarrez said, referring to two cities with several ports of entry and tens of thousands of people and vehicles coming across daily.
El Paso, Del Rio, Laredo and Brownsville are just a stone’s throw from places in Mexico where some of the world’s most powerful transnational criminal organizations operate. Groups like the Gulf Cartel, the Northeast Cartel, La Linea and the Sinaloa Cartel make billions a year sending drugs and migrants to the U.S.
Manjarrez said federal prosecutions along the Mexican border probably would be even higher, if not for limited judicial resources and cartel counterintelligence. He cited the example of Arizona when he headed the Border Patrol there more than a decade ago.
“If you have a limited number of prosecutors and you can only do a certain number of cases every week, you have to prioritize your resources,” he said. “The U.S. Attorney in Arizona (in the 2010s) came out with guidance: ‘We’re going to put a threshold now.’ They were not prosecuting (marijuana seizures) under 500 pounds. What did the cartels do? Instead of 500 pounds, they were sending 250 pounds across. They figured us out.”
The District of Arizona in the past two years has filed 9,430 federal criminal prosecutions, while the Southern District of California just to the west has taken 5,664 cases to court during the same period.
The Sinaloa cartel operates south of Arizona and California, and for the past two years thousands of migrants have been streaming cross places like Lukeville, Arizona, and Jacumba Hot Springs, California. Migrants were being released to the streets as recently as last February in San Diego.
Are they criminals or people refusing to give up on the American dream?
Immigration advocates say migrant re-entry prosecutions shouldn’t be lumped in with violent offenses such as drug trafficking and kidnapping. They also question why the federal government is dedicating so much time and effort from its prosecutors to criminalize foreign nationals for refusing to give up on attaining the American dream.
“They are wasting valuable resources on failed policies and failed deterrent strategies. We are focusing on criminalizing communities, criminalizing individuals instead of working together to find a comprehensive solution” to unauthorized migration, said Alan Lizarraga, a spokesman for the El Paso-based Border Network for Human Rights.
Applying judicial “consequences” to those who repeatedly attempt unauthorized crossings is one of the federal government’s deterrence pillars to illegal immigration, federal sources have repeatedly told Border Report.
But Carlos Marentes, an El Paso civil rights activist, said federal deterrence is applied selectively.
“It’s almost perverse how certain migrant nationalities are deported while others get a document that allows them to stay three, four years until their court appointment,” Marentes said. “In the case of Mexicans who are fleeing (drug) violence, they are summarily (removed).”
The political nature of immigration prosecutions is evident in court stats. The number of federally prosecuted immigration offenses shot up in 2019 as President Donald Trump sought to keep control of the Southern border amid a surge. Immigration prosecutions have been much lower during the Biden administration despite several surges.
Drug and firearms offenses prosecutions also are down, federal court data shows.
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