The report also found that 94 percent of confirmed foreign-born inmates in federal incarceration were in the country illegally.
The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security issued their final quarterly report for 2017 measuring progress since a January executive order by President Donald Trump to crack down on illegal immigration.
The report also found that about two-thirds of all immigrants in the custody of U.S. Marshals Service were in the United States illegally.
“This shows undeniably the need to secure the southern border with a wall to prevent many of the crimes from occurring,” a senior administration official said.
This is the third report issued since a Jan. 25 executive order regarding interior enforcement of immigration laws.
The reports have been primarily raw numerical data of confirmed foreign-born and illegal immigrants incarcerated. Officials said they hope future reports will have a breakdown of specific crimes, as well as information on state and local incarcerations.
A senior administration official cited U.S. Sentencing Commission data from fiscal year 2016 that found almost one-third of drug trafficking crimes and more than two-thirds of drug-use crimes came from foreign-born offenders, both legal and illegal.
The report found 58,766 known or suspected aliens were in Justice Department custody at the end of fiscal 2017, or Sept. 30. That included 39,455 persons incarcerated by the Bureau of Prisons, or BOP, and another 19,311 held by the U.S. Marshals Service, or USMS.
The report continues:
Of this total, 37,557 people had been confirmed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be aliens (i.e., non-citizens and non-nationals), while 21,209 foreign-born people were still under investigation by ICE to determine alienage.
Among the 37,557 confirmed aliens, 35,334 people (94 percent) were unlawfully present. These numbers include a 92 percent unlawful rate among 24,476 confirmed aliens in BOP custody and a 97 percent unlawful rate among 13,081 confirmed aliens in USMS custody.
“The American people deserve a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interest,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement issued Thursday. “But at the border and in communities across America, our citizens are being victimized by ....
