Continued Decline and Shifting Focus Seen
in Criminal Immigration Prosecutions

The latest available data from the Justice Department — current through August 2012 — show a continuing decline in the number of criminal prosecutions resulting from referrals made by agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). During the last 12 months there have been 81,496 such prosecutions filed, nearly 10 percent fewer than in August 2011 when the 12-month total had been 90,139 (see Table 1).

Table 1. Obama Administration: Trends in Federal Criminal Prosecutions by Lead Investigative Agency
Annual Prosecutions* Customs and Border Protection Immigration and Customs Enforcement Total
January 2009 79,495 18,466 97,961
August 2009 79,513 19,034 98,547
August 2010 73,100 19,514 92,614
August 2011 69,150 20,989 90,139
August 2012 63,701 17,795 81,496
Percent Change
2011 to 2012
-7.9% -15.2% -9.6%
* Number during the 12-month period ending in month shown.

TRAC shared its findings with both ICE and CBP and asked for comment for these declining numbers. A CBP spokesman explained this decline as a direct result of the fall in border apprehensions:

"We believe that the investment the American people have made in personnel, infrastructure and technology on the borders of the United States are continuing to pay dividends in the form of lower apprehension numbers."
(There are, of course, other influential factors, including shifts in the U.S and Mexican economies.) While he indicated that total apprehensions were not available yet for FY 2012, TRAC earlier reported that even though CBP apprehensions and prosecutions were both falling, the odds of CBP-referred criminal prosecution had actually risen sharply.

ICE-referred criminal prosecutions have been falling at a much faster pace over the past 12 months than those from CBP — down 15.2 percent for ICE as compared to a decline of 7.9 percent for CBP (see Table 1). We therefore asked ICE more than a week ago "if there is any particular reason(s) accounting for this recent decline, since other aspects of enforcement activities — such as actual removals and returns — have been going up." ICE did not respond to the queries.

At the time President Obama took office in January 2009, the overall number of criminal prosecutions resulting from CBP and ICE referrals to federal prosecutors had reached a peak of almost 100,000 per year. Since then, prosecutions have fallen by 16.8 percent. (Note that while the January 2009 total was 97,961, a 12-month peak of 98,727 CBP-ICE referred criminal prosecutions was reached in March 2009. Of course these prosecutions still largely reflected investigations completed during the last year of the Bush presidency.)

For the 12-month period ending August 2012, nearly four out of five (78.2 percent) referrals came from CBP; most of these originated as Border Patrol apprehensions. The remaining one-fifth (21.8 percent) were due to ICE-led investigations.


Attention Given to the Southwest versus Northern Border

Table 2 shows that virtually all (98.4 percent) of CBP's enforcement efforts are focused along the southwest border, which is composed of five federal districts: the Southern District of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and the Western and Southern Districts of Texas. CBP's focus has changed little during the past four years; when Obama assumed office in January 2009, 98.2 percent of CBP criminal prosecutions originated in these southwest border districts.

Table 2. Focus of Federal Criminal Prosecutions Referred by Customs and Border Protection
Annual Prosecutions* Southwest Border Northern Border Rest of US
January 2009 98.2% 0.7% 1.1%
August 2012 98.4% 0.9% 0.8%
* Number during the 12-month period ending in month shown.

While much longer than the border with Mexico, the non-Alaskan northern border between the U.S. and Canada was the focus of less than 1 hundredth (0.9 percent) of CBP's criminal enforcement activities. This despite the fact that it encompasses prosecutions across 14 federal districts that border Canada or the Great Lakes between Canada and the U.S. Less surprisingly, the remaining 71 federal judicial districts also saw little activity, accounting for only 0.8 percent of the total.

ICE's enforcement mandate covers the entire nation, including the judicial districts in the interior of the United States. But during the last 12 months, more than half (52.3 percent) of the criminal prosecutions resulting from its investigations occurred in the five southwest border districts (see Table 3). In contrast, when President Obama first took office such prosecutions made up just 41.4 percent of the total.

Table 3. Focus of Federal Criminal Prosecutions Referred by Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Annual Prosecutions* Southwest Border Northern Border Rest of US
January 2009 41.4% 7.6% 51.0%
August 2012 52.3% 6.6% 41.1%
* Number during the 12-month period ending in month shown.

Looked at from another perspective, this means that ICE enforcement in the interior districts had dropped from being the primary focus down to only 41.1 percent during the last 12 months.

The fourteen federal districts along the northern border received much less attention from ICE. Even this minor attention has slipped since President Obama assumed office — falling from 7.6 percent of the total to 6.6 percent (see Table 3).


District-by-District Criminal Prosecution Numbers

During the Obama administration thus far (January 2009 through August 2012), there have been a total of 329,889 criminal prosecutions resulting from CBP or ICE referrals. The number of prosecutions for each of the federal judicial districts is provided in Table 4.

With 95,679 criminal prosecutions, the Southern District of Texas accounted for almost three out of ten. Arizona was second with 91,122. Farther behind in third place was the Western District of Texas with 61,754. Rounding out the southern border districts were the Southern District of California and New Mexico, with 21,542 and 19,856 criminal prosecutions respectively.

Along the northern border, the Western and Northern Districts of New York were in first and second place, with just over 1,000 prosecutions each. In third and fourth place were the Western and Eastern Districts of Washington, with 739 and 658 criminal prosecutions, respectively.

Somewhat surprisingly there were other districts, neither on the border with Canada nor considered major international travel centers, that had a high number of enforcement actions. Among the standouts in this regard were Utah with 1,322 prosecutions and Oregon with 1,037. See Table 4 for the prosecution counts for all of the districts in the country.

Table 4. Total Criminal Prosecutions by District and Investigative Agency
During Obama Administration (January 2009 — August 2012)
Federal Judicial District Customs and
Border Protection
Immigration and
Customs Enforcement
Total
All Districts 258,535 71,354 329,889
Southwest Border Districts
Texas, S 85,609 10,070 95,679
Arizona 82,884 8,238 91,122
Texas, W 54,412 7,342 61,754
Cal, S 13,791 7,751 21,542
N Mexico 17,344 2,512 19,856
Northern Border Districts
N. Y., W 439 649 1,088
N. Y., N 731 320 1,051
Wash, W 30 709 739
Wash, E 114 544 658
Mich, W 14 618 632
Mich, E 122 485 607
N Dakota 393 151 544
Idaho 10 412 422
Penn, W 126 191 317
Vermont 179 73 252
Minnesota 5 171 176
Montana 24 146 170
Maine 27 141 168
New Hamp 4 52 56
Remaining Districts
Fla, S 1,007 1,675 2,682
Cal, C 162 2,482 2,644
Fla, M 245 1,420 1,665
Cal, E 1 1,510 1,511
Virg, E 74 1,327 1,401
Utah 1 1,321 1,322
Texas, N 392 890 1,282
N. Y., E 52 1,118 1,170
Cal, N 9 1,151 1,160
N. Y., S 1 1,090 1,091
Oregon 7 1,030 1,037
Ga, N 42 938 980
Colorado 0 855 855
Nevada 1 706 707
Texas, E 19 664 683
N Car, W 8 593 601
Maryland 6 586 592
Nebraska 3 585 588
S Car 9 544 553
Ill, N 8 529 537
Ark, W 0 494 494
Kansas 1 488 489
Penn, E 1 488 489
N. J. 15 471 486
Ohio, S 0 441 441
Iowa, N 0 389 389
Wyoming 0 347 347
La, W 38 254 292
Mass 3 286 289
S Dakota 0 288 288
Mo, W 0 275 275
N Car, E 11 258 269
N Car, M 3 262 265
Okla, W 8 253 261
Ill, C 1 256 257
La, E 16 215 231
Iowa, S 0 222 222
Ark, E 0 219 219
Penn, M 2 217 219
Miss, S 4 201 205
Ala, N 0 198 198
Mo, E 0 198 198
Tenn, E 0 192 192
Tenn, W 1 187 188
Ala, S 15 163 178
Ill, S 1 175 176
Fla, N 3 164 167
Ken, E 3 157 160
Tenn, M 0 152 152
R. I. 4 146 150
Ind, N 1 140 141
Ken, W 0 139 139
Hawaii 3 135 138
Ohio, N 80 51 131
Ga, M 0 129 129
Okla, N 0 122 122
Ind, S 0 110 110
La, M 8 93 101
Delaware 1 98 99
Conn 3 87 90
Ga, S 1 87 88
Wisc, E 0 82 82
Wisc, W 0 77 77
D. C. 0 73 73
Ala, M 1 65 66
W Virg, N 0 62 62
Alaska 0 47 47
Virg, W 0 40 40
Miss, N 0 39 39
Okla, E 2 16 18
W Virg, S 0 17 17