Four of five drug busts by Border Patrol involve U.S. citizens

There’s no argument that Mexico-based crime organizations dominate drug smuggling into the United States. But the public message that the Border Patrol has trumpeted for much of the last decade, mainly through press releases about its seizures, has emphasized Mexican drug couriers, or mules, as those largely responsible for transporting drugs.

It turns out that the Border Patrol catches more American citizens with drugs than it does Mexican couriers, according to an analysis of records obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

"Sentenced to time served for illegal re-entry into the U.S., Portillo-Tobar, 34, was one of 51 people charged federally in Western Pennsylvania in 2012 for immigration-related crimes. That's a tiny fraction of the volume of cases seen in southern border districts. But on top of 2011's local record of 85 immigration-related federal cases, it suggests that the revolving door of immigrant justice has come to Pittsburgh."

"Even as the number of shootings by agents increases, the system for holding them accountable remains complicated and opaque, leaving the public in the dark about the status of the cases, an Arizona Daily Star investigation has found. One Arizona case has remained secret and "ongoing" for almost three years."

“But so far in New York City, the drive to apply prosecutorial discretion to the docket of deportation cases has yielded strikingly few results. Out of a backlog of 42,875 cases, only 583 have been closed due to prosecutorial discretion, according to immigration court statistics compiled by Syracuse University’s TRAC database. That’s a rate of about 1.4 percent, less than half the rate of cases that have been closed nationally.”

"While the nation disputes if, when and where the government should use drones over U.S. soil, Texas state police are taking their surveillance efforts to the next level.  In a little-noticed July purchase, officials at the Texas Department of Public Safety inked a $7.4 million contract with the Swiss company Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. for a high-altitude spy plane. Unique technology affixed to the state’s new aircraft could raise the ire of civil libertarians and privacy advocates."

"Texas state police spokesman Tom Vinger said most of the plane’s missions will be carried out on the border between the United States and Mexico, and "serve as a tool in assisting specific joint operations that are clearly defined by area and duration.”

"In partnership with the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute, Need to Know investigates whether U.S. border agents have been using excessive force in an effort to curb illegal immigration."

"The report raises questions about accountability because border agents are part of the Department of Homeland Security and therefore are not subjected to the same public scrutiny as police officers who use excessive force. It also questions whether, in the rush to secure the border, agents are being adequately trained. And it raises the question: why aren’t these cases being prosecuted?"

"The United States has deported more than 250 Haitians since January knowing that one in two will be jailed without charges in facilities so filthy they pose life-threatening health risks.

An investigation by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting found that the Obama administration has not followed its own policy of seeking alternatives to deportation when there are serious medical and humanitarian concerns."

Trevor Aaronson wrote a behind the scenes account of how this project became a reality.

Despite the President’s promise to reform U.S. immigration policy, Hispanics now make up over half of all federal prison population. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission “Hispanics comprised 50.3 percent of all people sentenced in that time period, blacks 19.7 percent and whites 26.4 percent. In comparison, last year Hispanics made up just 16 percent of the whole U.S. population.”