The Gist

White House Loves Crackdown on Brown People

This story is brought to you today by the letter "X," for Xenophobia:

"The Bush administration has sharply ratcheted up prosecutions of illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the last year, with increases so dramatic that immigration offenses now account for as much as half the nation's federal criminal caseload.

In the widening crackdown, administration officials prosecuted 9,350 illegal immigrants on federal criminal charges in March, up from 3,746 a year ago and an all-time high, according to statistics released Tuesday. Those convicted have received jail sentences averaging about one month."

These cases are totally overwhelming our nation's criminal justice system and distracting it from more important things (of the 16,298 federal prosecutions in March only 702 of them were for white-collar crimes). But, whether it's these prosecutions, Guantanamo or secret CIA "black sites," this administration just loves throwing "other" people in prison. In fact, jailing people is their third favorite solution to any problem behind cutting taxes and dropping bombs.