The federal government’s looking at recidivism in illegal aliens who are arrested and let go. They chose 100 cases at random from 2004 and figured out how many of them got arrested again:

Of the sample group of 100, according to the audit, 73 immigrants were later arrested a collective 429 times _ on charges ranging from traffic tickets to weapons and drug charges.

The data suggest “the rate at which released criminal aliens are re-arrested is extremely high,” the audit noted.

Now as I’m trying to piece this together, I see it’s reported differently in the Wash Times , emphasis mine:

…of the 100 selected aliens, 73 had an average of six arrests each after being released from custody. They were arrested, collectively, 429 times on 878 charges, ranging from traffic violations and trespassing to drug crimes, burglary, robbery, assault and weapons violations.

73% had an average of six arrests each? Since 2004? That’s stunning. That really does strike me as too high and I would treat that figure with a little caution. (Given that there were 262,105 cases in 2004, the sample size of 100 case files is too small to draw base any conclusions on that info with any great certainty.) But even if it’s exaggerating the problem, it still is hard to square with the image of most illegal aliens just being here to work, laying low, and keeping out of trouble.

The Wash Times article on this report also looks at a few jurisdictions–state and municipal–which get millions from the federal government to assist in enforcing immigration laws, yet severely limit cooperation between local or state law enforcement and ICE, or don’t bother at all. San Francisco gets a million dollars of SCAAP money even though it declares itself a “sanctuary city”, refusing to report to or cooperate with the Feds.

That, my friends, is what we call “pork”.

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