Criminal prosecutions since 1989. (Courtesy of TRAC)

Federal prosecutions soared in the 2009 fiscal year, reaching a record high of 169,612.

The 9 percent increase over the previous year was driven by cases filed against immigration violators, according to Justice Department data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Immigration prosecutions shot up 15.7 percent, and amounted to more than half of all criminal cases brought by the federal government.

Meanwhile, drug, weapons and white-collar cases were up only slightly or declined.

Experts told The New York Times the jump stems from efforts during the Bush administration to step up immigration enforcement and expedite prosecutions. In addition to increasing the number of Border Patrol agents, the Bush administration launched Operation Streamline, which promoted mass processing of plea deals in immigrant cases. The Obama administration has continued the policy. The Obama administration was in power for more than two-thirds of fiscal 2009.

Immigration cases are disposed of in an average of two days, and they are rarely turned down by prosecutors. White-collar cases typically linger for about 460 days, and prosecutors reject about half those referred to them by law enforcement agencies.

In Arizona, where nearly a quarter of the immigration cases were processed, Operation Streamline has run into trouble. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which has jurisdiction over the state, recently held that the process of mass pleadings violates the federal rule that shields defendants from being coerced into a guilty plea, according to the Times.

Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, who was confirmed by the Senate in September, has said border enforcement is a top priority.

Arizona is also home to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose tough enforcement of immigration laws have led to the arrest of thousands of illegal immigrants. He has been accused of unfairly targeting Latinos in his crime sweeps, traffic stops and immigration raids. Arpaio denies wrongdoing, saying his officers are simply enforcing the law.

The Justice Department has set up a telephone tip-line as part an investigation of Arpaio, known as “Sheriff Joe.”

Click here for the full NYT story, and click here for a summary of TRAC’s findings.

U.S. attorneys are accepting more FBI referrals for prosecution, convictions are up, and prison sentences are increasing, according to a report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Data examined showed “small but consistent year-by-year changes” during the past five years, according to TRAC, which acquired the information from the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys through a Freedom of Information Act request.

For example:

• Referrals prosecuted rose from 51 percent in FY 2004 to 58.2 percent in FY 2008.
• Convictions from FBI referrals improved from 79.2 percent in FY 2004 to 83.5 percent in FY 2008.
• In 2004, 10,056 individuals were sent to prison as a result of an FBI investigation and the median sentence was 30 months. The number of those sent to prison dipped slightly to 9,789, in FY 2008, but the typical sentence rose to 41 months.

The report concentrates on criminal enforcement activities tracked by federal prosecutors, but it does not thoroughly explore the classified surveillance and intelligence activities of the National Security Branch or the research activities of the Science and Technology Branch.

The data varied widely in different parts of the country. TRAC ranked the top five federal districts, based on the the proportion of FBI referrals that resulted in criminal filings:

1. Minnesota (Minneapolis)
2. California Central (Los Angeles)
3. Pennsylvania Middle (Scranton)
4. Florida South (Miami)
5. South Carolina (Columbia)

In each, more than three quarters of the referrals begot prosecutions. The records clearinghouse also ranked the five lowest districts — in which federal prosecutors acted on slightly more than a third of the FBI referrals:

1. Alabama Middle (Montgomery)
2. Mississippi South (Jackson)
3. Tennessee Middle (Nashville)
4. Kentucky West (Louisville)
5. West Virginia South (Charleston)