September 6, 2015
By Matt Ford
By Matt Ford
Criminal-justice reform (click here) is one of the few bipartisan issues gaining traction in Congress right now. Politicians from the left, the right, and the center now recognize the need to reduce the United States’ unprecedented prison population. But an immigration bill under debate in Congress shows that the impulses that created mass incarceration still run strong in American politics.
In July, a group of legislators introduced the Establishing Mandatory Minimums for Illegal Reentry Act of 2015, popularly known as Kate’s Law. On Wednesday, the U.S. Sentencing Commission estimated that Kate’s Law would expand the federal prison population by over 57,000 prisoners, according to Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a nonprofit organization that supporters sentencing reform....
...Steinle’s death set off a firestorm of protests among opponents of illegal immigration. Donald Trump transmuted some of the outrage over Steinle’s death, as well as his broader invectives against illegal immigration and “political correctness,” into frontrunner status in the Republican presidential-nominee race. On a July 6 segment that defended Trump’s comments, Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly urged his cable audience to lobby Congress on a mandatory-minimum provision he called Kate’s Law. The following night, he clarified his proposal even further....
...Despite the public rancor, immigrants are generally less likely to commit crimes than the native population, according to the The Wall Street Journal. Mandatory minimums are generally ineffective at reducing crime or recidivism. Anti-illegal-immigration advocates who complain about the burden on the American taxpayer might find a 28 percent increase in the federal prison budget counterproductive. But these are relatively minor points in the debate. What matters is the all-too-familiar refrain: Something must be done....
I don't like it any more than anyone else, but, the facts are the facts.
August 27, 2015
...Despite the public rancor, immigrants are generally less likely to commit crimes than the native population, according to the The Wall Street Journal. Mandatory minimums are generally ineffective at reducing crime or recidivism. Anti-illegal-immigration advocates who complain about the burden on the American taxpayer might find a 28 percent increase in the federal prison budget counterproductive. But these are relatively minor points in the debate. What matters is the all-too-familiar refrain: Something must be done....
I don't like it any more than anyone else, but, the facts are the facts.
August 27, 2015
..."The gun was pointed at the ground," (click here) James Norris, the former head of the San Francisco Police crime lab, said repeatedly on the stand Thursday during the preliminary hearing of Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, a Mexican national and five-time deportee who has ignited a national debate on illegal immigration and drawn the ire of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Out of court, Norris called the shooting an accident. "You couldn't do this on purpose," he said of intentionally ricocheting a shot and hitting a person roughly 100 feet away....
