(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-16 11:11

LOS ANGELES - Federal authorities are cracking down on immigrants who were previously deported and then reentered the country illegally, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

This kind of reentry makes up more than one-third of all prosecutions in Los Angeles and surrounding counties, according to US attorney's statistics published by the paper on its website.

Prosecutors filed 539 such cases in fiscal year 2007, making up 35 percent of the total caseload, compared to 207 in 2006 -- 17 percent of all cases, statistics showed.

Statistics for the first four months of this fiscal year showed the trend continuing. The surge in prosecutions reflects the federal government's push in recent years to detect illegal immigrants with criminal records in what may seem the most obvious of places: the state's jails and prisons, the paper said.

Immigration authorities have long combed inmate populations for illegal immigrants, but additional money and cooperation with local law enforcement departments has fueled an increase in such cases at the US attorney's office in Los Angeles. The illegal reentry charge is the single most prosecuted crime in the office.

Federal authorities said the prosecutions serve as a deterrent for those who see the border as a turnstile. They said they were targeting violent gang members, career criminals and drug dealers who have returned to the country after being deported -- many of them repeatedly.

In years past, many of those now being prosecuted for illegally reentering the country would have simply been deported. Now they are being sent to prison first. Sentences can be as long as 20 years, but most defendants receive three to five years, the paper quoted prosecutors as saying.

Prosecutions are likely to continue increasing nationwide as the immigration agency expands its work in jails, said the paper.

Congress recently appropriated 200 million US dollars for the agency, which would be used to develop technology and work with local and state officials to identify more illegal immigrants behind bars, according to the paper.