Some rather disturbing data from the Pew Hispanic Research Center: 40% of sentenced offenders at the federal level were Latinos, a percentage which has almost doubled since 1991, when the rate was a “mere” 23%. Here’s the breakdown from Pew:

- Hispanics represented 40% of all sentenced federal offenders in 2007, the single largest racial and ethnic group among sentenced federal offenders. Whites constituted 27% of federal sentenced offenders and blacks 23%. The remainder (10%) are Asians, Native Americans and those whose race and ethnicity is indeterminate.

- More than seven-in-ten (72%) of Hispanics sentenced in federal courts in 2007 did not hold U.S. citizenship. They accounted for 29% of all federal offenders in 2007.

- Latino offenders who did not hold U.S. citizenship represented a greater share of all Latino offenders in 2007 than in 1991 — 72% versus 61%.

- Between 1991 and 2007, the number of Hispanics sentenced in federal courts nearly quadrupled (270%), rising faster than the number of offenders sentenced in federal courts over this period and accounting for 54% of the growth in the total number of offenders.

- In 2007, more than half (56%) of all Latino offenders were sentenced in just five of the nation’s 94 U.S. district courts. All five are located near the U.S.-Mexico border: the Southern (17%) and Western (15%) districts of Texas, the District of Arizona (11%), the Southern District of California (6%) and the District of New Mexico (6%).

One might wonder why the emphasis here in on federal offenders. That would be because the jarring statistics can also be attributed to federal “crimes” such as being undocumented.

Pew says the double whammy of increased immigration and increased enforcement of immigration laws is what is driving this upward trend in federal criminal sentences.

Via / Pew Hispanic Center