Chief Justice Roberts: Due to Immigration Prosecutions, Criminal Cases Up to Highest Levels Since Prohibition in District Courts in 2009

Chief Justice John Roberts has released the 2009 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary. See Download Roberts-2009-report[1].  Criminal filings were up in the district courts in no small part due to the number of immigration prosecutions.  Chief Justice Roberts remarked that the criminal filings reached their highest levels since the repeal of Prohibition.  Specifically,

"Immigration filings climbed to record levels, as cases jumped 21% to 25,804, and the number of defendants rose 19% to 26,961.  The growth resulted mostly from filings addressing either improper rentry by aliens or fraud or misuse of a visa or entry permit.  The charge of improper renetntry by aliens accounted for 80% of all immigration cases and 77% of all immigration defendants.  The vast majority of immigration cases -- 88% -- were filed in five southwestern border districts."

Courts of appeals filings were done slightly, however, in large part due to, according to the Chief Justice, a decline in petitions to review Board of Immigration Appeals rulings.

For more on the report from Lyle Denniston on SCOTUS blog, click here.

KJ