He said law enforcement would no longer catch and release undocumented immigrants taken into custody at the border. [Sessions seeks greater role for Justice in immigration enforcement]The directive signals a more aggressive posture on immigration issues than the Obama administration had taken. Advocates and legal analysts said it raises troubling questions about the Justice Department’s intentions and its use of resources. Such crossings, though, also have decreased in recent years, and some researchers say demographic and economic factors have more influence than border security on the volume. In fiscal year 2015, for example, such cases accounted for 29.3 percent of the entire federal caseload — behind only drug prosecutions, which accounted for 31.8 percent, according to data from United States Sentencing Commission.

Source: Washington Post April 11, 2017 17:02 UTC