Border Justice? Sentencing Federal Narcotics Offenders in Southwest Border Districts: A Focus on Citizenship Status

Abstract

The war on drugs has largely been waged in the southwestern border region of the United States. Five federal border districts (California South, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas West, and Texas South) alone are responsible for roughly one quarter of federal narcotics prosecutions annually. Narcotics cases make up roughly 30% of the federal criminal caseload each year, and the number of Hispanic and noncitizen defendants prosecuted in U.S. federal courts has risen steadily over the past two decades. In 1991, noncitizens comprised about 23% of persons prosecuted in federal courts; by 2009, nearly 45% of those prosecuted were noncitizens.This study examined judicial sentencing practices for federal narcotics offenders in these five southwestern border districts to explore the effect of citizenship status on sentence length. We also partition our analysis by district to enable assessment of variation in sentencing practices across these federal border districts.