Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner, May 2, 2019

The Hispanic population has doubled since 1990 and in the last 10 years has become the only race that has also seen growth in prison inmates, a break from the trend in shrinking black and white prisoners, according to two new reports on Latin immigrants.

The Justice Department reported that of the three races it counts, there were 336,500 Hispanics in federal prisons in 2017, a 2% increase in 10 years.

By comparison, there were 475,900 black federal prisoners in 2017, the latest statistics released, a remarkable 20% drop since 2007.

The white prison population, meanwhile, shrunk 12.7% to 436,500.

The surge in illegal immigration likely plays a role in the Hispanic prison population. Justice holds about 60,000 illegal immigrants in prison.

The growth in the Hispanic population also is a major factor and comes as the black and white populations have shrunk.

The new FactsUSA 2019 Annual Report said that Hispanics are 18% of the U.S. population, up from 8% in 1990.

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And, just as Justice had, FactsUSA logged an increase in the Hispanic prison population, to 23% in 2016, up from 16% in 2000.

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