Which is why I posted this article to provide a different point of view. However the math from the federal reports does not support the assertions made in the CATO article.
I am not seeing that anywhere in the article jem posted, but perhaps your young eyes are sharper than my old eyes. All I saw was repeated attempts to mislead the unwary reader, such as in this quote. “Nearly 95 percent of confirmed aliens in our federal prisons are here illegally.” So don't you think it would be wise to ask what is being considered a federal prison ? A Federally run Detention Center for aliens awaiting deportation perhaps? When something makes no sense we shouldn't swallow it hook line and sinker. We should question it. The impression the report is trying to give is at odds with serious studies of incarcerated immigrants. The impression sought is that since "one in five federal prisoners are non-citizens" that you, the Dr. Goebbels susceptible reader, will interpret "non-citizen" as "illegal immigrant" (not the same of course) and therefore, since 20% is far higher than the percentage of illegal immigrants in the general population, that the statements found in careful studies of immigrants and crime such as "All immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than natives relative to their shares of the population. Even illegal immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans." Can not possibly be right! Well at least we can say that both the hoped for conclusion from jem's posted report (the Dr. Goebbels version of the immigrants and crime story) or the quoted statement above can't both be right. Hmmm, I wonder which is correct?
I would urge you to read the Federal reports I posted to get the direct raw data. I provided the recent federal quarterly report and the 2011 yearly report from the Obama adminitration. Read these federal documents and do the math.