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Is immigration reform a critical criminal justice priority?

By Douglas A. Berman

The question posed by this post title is prompted by this sobering article in today's Houston Chronicle.  The piece is headlined, "A system's fatal flaws: Thousands of inmates admit they're in the U.S. illegally, but even those convicted of violent crimes are often released right back onto Houston's streets."  It starts this way: Federal immigration officials allowed scores of violent criminals ? some ordered deported decades ago ? to walk away from Harris County Jail despite the inmates' admission to local authorities that they were in the country illegally, a Houston Chronicle investigation found.  A review of thousands of criminal and immigration records shows that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials didn't file the paperwork to detain roughly 75 percent of the more than 3,500 inmates who told jailers during the booking process that they were in the U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on November 16, 2008 (boomark / email).