is it true? 1/3 of federal prisoners are illegal immigrants? I'm looking for different sources

[ORDagnabbit]

70,000 illegal immigrants served jail time in 2003, representing 21% of the federal prison population. It is estimated that currently 27% of federal prison inmates are criminal aliens, noncitizens convicted of crimes while in this country legally or illegally.

This comes from wikipedia and the GAO report of 2005

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05337r.pdf

[dkf]

1. That can't possibly be true. Illegal immigrants are law abiding citizens after all.

I'm sure they committed no offense at all and the charges were trumped up against them because we are a racist country who hate brown people.

[frylock]

10. black

white

[dmallind]

2. Be careful to note FEDERAL prison

Federal prisons are used for those convicted of a subset of crimes. You don't go to federal prison for robbing a bank or beating up a neighbor. You only go if the Feds had jurisdiction, which would be for a small number of crimes overall (if you are running a nationwide drug ring perhaps or killed a federal official) but would include ALL immigration crimes - since that's a federal jursidiction.

So all people convicted FOR immigration violations would be in fedreal prisons, whereas very few robbers or rapists or murderers would be. It's a subset of criminals far more likely to include immigrants than the overall. NOte that 70K x 5 would be about 350K Federal prison population.

The US has 2.2M people behind bars. Federal prisons are about 1/7 of that - but will include almost all illegal immigrants as they are sent to Federal prisons So chances are illegals are closer to 70K/2.2M or 3.5% of prisoners overall (I'm sure there are SOME illegals in state prisons so may be a bit more than this).

[Gormy Cuss]

5. 68% of the criminal aliens in Federal prison were there as a result of immigration offenses,

21 % for drugs, 2% for everything else, according to the same GAO study.
see pdf page 23 here: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05646r.pdf

This GAO analysis also estimates the number incarcerated in areas with high rates of state or local arrests and incarcerations that were reimbursable under the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP.)

[dmallind]

6. I'll buy that - I still wonder what the inverse is

Remember I think (it is think not know I confess) that almost ALL immigration offenses end up in Federal prison. That's not the same as thinking all federal prisoners, even all those who are immigarnts, are in there for immigration crimes.

[Iggo]

3. 27% are noncitizens convicted of crimes whil here legally OR illegally.

That 27% number is for legal and illegal aliens combined who are federal prison inmates right now.

That 70,000 number represents the number of illegal aliens who went through the jail system (which is not the federal prison system) back in 2003. But they weren't all in at the same time.

[alc]

4. my search found

everywhere from 20% to 40% nationally in 2008 and 2009 and 50% in California. No links that anyone here would trust though so you'll have to search yourself.

The "served jail time" phrase is interesting. Does that include people being held for a very short time (before deportation maybe)? Or is that felony convictions? It's a huge cost either way if it's 20+% of the prison population but means different things relative to the amount of crime illegal immigrants cause and the total cost of housing them. What percent of prisoner-days are illegal immigrants? (I probably made up the term, but a week would be 7 prisoner-days, a full year 365 prisoner-days)

[Iggo]

11. Jail and Prison are two different things.

And State Prison and Federal Prison are also two different things.

Be careful not to mix the stats.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. That's an old claim made by Lou Dobbs on Nov. 4, 2003. It's been debunked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/business/30leonside.html

It was picked up and widely thrown out by FAIR and other RW web sites.

[suffragette]

8. The info in your own post counters that claim

"It is estimated that currently 27% of federal prison inmates are criminal aliens, noncitizens convicted of crimes while in this country legally or illegally."

Not being a citizen is not the same as being undocumented.


And the link sinkingfeeling posted makes it clear that even those numbers are misleading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/business/30leonside.html?_r=1

Here are the facts, according to the Department of Justice:

In 2000, 27 percent of the inmates in federal prisons were noncitizens. Some of these noncitizens were illegal immigrants, and some were in this country legally. In 2001, this percentage dropped to 24 percent, and it continued dropping over the next four years, falling to 20 percent in 2005.

Bottom line: illegal immigrants make up significantly less than a third of the federal prison population, and the share has been falling in recent years.

The share of state prison inmates who are noncitizens is much lower. (This is largely because immigration violations themselves are federal crimes.) In 2000, 4.6 percent of inmates in state prisons were noncitizens. This number remained quite steady over the next five years, right around 4.6 percent.

Over all — combining federal and state prisons — 6.4 percent of the nation’s prisoners were noncitizens in 2005. This is down from 6.8 percent in 2000.

By comparison, 6.9 percent of the total United States population were noncitizens in 2003, according to the Census Bureau.

So, even the 20% in federal prisons cited in 2005 is specified as including both documented and undocumented immigrants, with no breakdown of percentage by their status.

[mrJJ]

9. Stats from Bureau Of Prisons

United States: 153,519 (73.0 %)
Mexico: 38,228 (18.2 %)
Colombia: 2,752 (1.3 %)
Cuba: 1,846 (0.9 %)
Dominican Republic: 2,722 (1.3 %)
Other/Unknown: 11,092 (5.3 %)

Last Updated: Saturday, 27 March 2010

http://www.bop.gov/news/quick.jsp

[smirkymonkey]

12. So I guess they can go free now, right?

Because who wants their tax dollars supporting a bunch of illegals who sit around and watch tv, eat for free, get free medical care and warm place to sleep at night! :sarcasm: