SCOTUS gets an important one right

[drwex]

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=08-108

Feste linked to this and noted that deep linguistic pedantry displayed in the judgment, which is funny considering how badly they botched the last one that called for them to understand how people use language, but that's an aside.

The meat of this case is very important. For several years now the government has been using hardball pressure tactics on victims of its immigration raids. Instead of simply being charged with immigration offenses and deported, the government threatens these people (most of whom can't even read/write English) with the 'aggravated identity theft' charge. They're then offered a "plea deal" in which they plead to lesser offenses and take five months in jail rather than wait 6-8 months (in jail) for a trial on the more serious offense that carries a minimum 2-year sentence.

That's a load of crap, used to inflate conviction statistics and pad the numbers to make prosecutors look good. Meanwhile, people who are the sole income for their families sit in jail for five months before they're deported. Mind you, their housing and feeding is paid for by us (taxpayers) at an average cost of $40,000/year per person. All so politicians can look "tough on immigration." It's also part of the legacy war on judges' discretion. Lesser offenses gave judges the option to impose 0-5 month sentences, and many judges opted to skip incarceration and simply send the illegal immigrants home. This seems to infuriate a certain segment of the Republican conservative base, who believe in punitive action above what I would call common sense.

Thanks but no thanks - I'd rather my law enforcement dollars were spent on real criminals, not on exaggerated and trumped up charges against non-violent offenders whose main desire is to feed their families.