DOJ: 64 Percent of All Federal Arrests in 2018 Were Non-Citizens

Non-citizens accounted for 64 percent of all federal arrests in 2018, according to new data released on Aug. 22 by the Justice Department. The surge was driven largely by immigration-crime arrests, which have soared to the highest level in at least two decades.

Federal authorities conducted 108,667 arrests for immigration crimes in 2018, up more than five times from the 20,942 arrests in 1998. Immigration arrests accounted for 95 percent of the total increase in the number of federal arrests over the past 20 years, the data shows.

That data also shows a spike in the percentage of arrests of non-citizens compared to arrests of U.S. citizens. In 1998, arrests of citizens accounted for 63 percent of the total arrests. In 2018, the ratio flipped, with arrests of non-citizens growing to 64 percent of the total.

In a press release accompanying the data, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) noted that while non-citizens accounted for 7 percent of the U.S. population, they committed 24 percent of all federal drug arrests and 25 percent of all federal property arrests and 28 percent of all federal fraud arrests.

{snip} The increase in total arrests in 2018 was fueled almost entirely by immigration arrests.

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Non-citizens from Mexico and Central America accounted for 94 percent of the immigration arrests last year. Arrest of non-citizens from Central America soared 160 percent compared to 2017, while arrests of those from Mexico grew 48 percent. Notably, federal authorities arrested more Mexican nationals last year than American citizens.

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Further highlighting the role of immigration enforcement in the arrest statistics, the BJS statement noted that the portion of all arrests that occurred in districts along the U.S.-Mexico border has nearly doubled over the course of two decades from 33 percent to 65 percent.

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In terms of prosecutions, more than 78 percent of non-citizens were prosecuted for illegal reentry, alien smuggling, misuse of visas. The most common prosecutions of non-citizens outside of immigration-related offense dealt with drugs, at 13 percent of the total, and fraud, at 4 percent.