Illegal immigrants accounted for nearly three-quarters of all federal sentences for drug possession in fiscal year 2014, a significant spike from the previous year, The Washington Examiner reported.
The 1,123 illegals convicted for simple possession in 2013 made up 55.8 percent of the total cases. In 2014, 1,681 illegal aliens were sentenced, making up 74.1 percent of the total, according to the new data from the United States Sentencing Commission obtained by the Examiner.
Illegal immigrants also made up 16.9 percent of all federal drug trafficking sentences. More than one-third of all federal sentences also involved illegal immigrants.
The data showed a small decline in the total number of illegal alien sentences from 2013 to 2014, with illegals being responsible for 38.6 percent of all federal sentencing in 2013, and 36.7 percent in 2014.
The data was made available amid controversy surrounding illegal immigration enforcement laws, particularly in so-called sanctuary cities like San Francisco, where an illegal Mexican immigrant shot and killed a California woman last week. The immigrant had been deported multiple times and charged with numerous felonies, yet he was eventually afforded deportation protection after San Francisco officials refused to cooperate with federal immigration authorities who were trying to deport the man.
Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has also come under fire for controversial comments about immigrants. "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you," Trump said during his campaign announcement in June, The Washington Post reported. "They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
The real estate mogul lost a few business partners over the comments, but some say the incident in San Francisco proved his point.
The Sentencing Commission's data showed that in 2014, 20 percent of kidnapping/hostage taking sentences were for illegal immigrants, as were 12 percent of murder sentences and 19.4 percent of national-defense related sentences.
Local or state level convictions, which is where the majority of rape and murder cases would be prosecuted, were not included.
