Changes in Criminal
Enforcement of
Immigration Laws

Table 1. Immigration Criminal
Prosecutions by Lead Charge
Fiscal Year Immigration Illegal Entry (8 USC 1325) Illegal Re-entry (8 USC 1326)
2004 37,884 17,969 13,415
2005 37,614 16,504 13,963
2006 37,529 13,643 16,493
2007 39,458 13,960 17,679
2008 79,431 49,663 21,320
2009 91,899 54,175 30,126
2010 87,375 43,688 35,836
2011 82,250 39,331 36,139
2012 91,941 48,032 37,196
2013 97,384 53,822 37,440
2014* 38,149 15,578 19,831
* Covers only the first six months of FY 2014 (October 2013 - March 2014).

The latest available data from the Justice Department covering the first six months of FY 2014 indicate that substantial changes are occurring in the criminal enforcement of the immigration laws, particularly among those districts along the border with Mexico.

Overall, the new data document a drop in the number of criminal prosecutions for illegal entry under 8 USC 1325, but a continued rise in prosecutions for illegal re-entry (8 USC 1326). According to the case-by-case records analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), during the first six months of FY 2014 there were a total of 15,578 criminal prosecutions for illegal entry, and 19,831 for illegal re-entry.

Thus, as shown in Table 1, the largest component of criminal prosecutions for all immigration offenses is now for illegal re-entry under 8 USC 1326. This marks a significant change, since in recent years prosecutions for illegal entry — a petty misdemeanor — had outnumbered those for the more serious felony charge of illegal re-entry (see Figure 1).


Figure 1. Immigration Criminal Prosecutions by Lead Charge

As noted in TRAC's earlier report tracking these trends, during the Obama Administration (as of FY 2013), illegal re-entry has experienced the sharpest growth rates among lead charges cited in immigration criminal prosecutions. So far in FY 2014, illegal re-entry has now overtaken prosecutions for illegal entry.

What Happens After Individuals Are Charged with Illegal Re-entry?

Most citizens charged with a crime in the federal criminal courts end up pleading guilty; the same is true for noncitizens. Sometimes as an incentive for pleading guilty, the prosecutor agrees to reduce the charge and hence the potential sentence. This type of plea bargain can occur in immigration cases where the prosecutor charges a non-citizen with illegal re-entry, but is willing to reduce the charge to illegal entry in exchange for a guilty plea.

How often is a felony charge of illegal re-entry pled down to the petty misdemeanor of illegal entry? The pattern appears to differ sharply depending upon the U.S. Attorney's office. For example, in three southwest border districts — New Mexico, the Southern District of Texas, and the Western District of Texas — the data show that these types of plea bargains have been rare during the past seven years. In Arizona, according to government data, plea bargains of this nature are quite common and appear to be rising. By contrast, in the Southern District of California, the data indicate that this sort of plea bargain — while once common — has become more unusual in recent years. This fact of different charging practices among U.S. Attorney offices therefore complicates the picture that is reflected in the national trends shown above.

District-by-district trends in prosecutions for illegal entry versus illegal re-entry are discussed in the sections that follow. Because most immigration prosecutions occur in the five judicial districts along the country's border with Mexico, we focus here on these border districts. Our examination again is based on the original charges filed; a subsequent report in this series will examine how these trends differ when convictions — instead of the original charges — are compared, and the role that different U.S. Attorney charging practices play.

Illegal Entry: Prosecutions in Texas South and Texas West Dominate

Since 2011 the Southern District of Texas has seen the highest volume of prosecutions for illegal entry, followed by the Western District of Texas. Prosecutions in those two districts spiked at the end of calendar year 2012. As TRAC noted in an earlier report, this jump occurred because of a rapid rise in referrals from Customs and Border Protection, particularly along the border in these two districts around Del Rio and Laredo. However, following this spike, starting around June 2013, prosecution numbers began dropping. Figure 2 shows these trends quite clearly, and the actual counts are given in Table 2. To make the trends easier to see, the plotted lines represent a moving monthly average of the actual prosecution counts calculated over the preceding six-month period.



Figure 2. Prosecutions Filed for Illegal Entry in Southwest Border Districts (six-month moving average)

The drop-off in illegal prosecutions, while most visible for the Texas border districts, has not been limited to these two districts. As we see in the district-by-district trends shown in Figure 2, there has also been a fall in prosecutions in Arizona, although that trend began perhaps six months or so earlier than it did in the Texas districts. More recently, starting in August of 2013, there has also been an observable drop-off in prosecutions for illegal entry in New Mexico.

Month Arizona California South New Mexico Texas South Texas West
Mar-07 408 133 3 809 5
Apr-07 305 338 5 684 7
May-07 363 179 4 603 5
Jun-07 275 76 5 876 14
Jul-07 137 139 0 532 5
Aug-07 98 166 1 845 5
Sep-07 74 94 5 1,356 6
Oct-07 329 99 2 1,380 4
Nov-07 197 143 1 1,023 2
Dec-07 241 227 1 1,055 482
Jan-08 510 215 5 645 465
Feb-08 821 229 7 795 2,160
Mar-08 1,089 355 367 823 2,898
Apr-08 1,428 170 631 825 2,180
May-08 1,287 191 614 2,025 1,297
Jun-08 1,248 290 601 2,610 1,165
Jul-08 1,111 204 351 1,893 1,530
Aug-08 801 117 185 1,332 1,095
Sep-08 990 168 367 4,367 1,198
Oct-08 1,107 58 244 3,579 767
Nov-08 880 64 200 2,477 661
Dec-08 906 132 125 1,685 553
Jan-09 956 152 238 1,432 1,292
Feb-09 1,148 93 240 1,048 1,410
Mar-09 1,293 91 385 1,703 1,556
Apr-09 1,168 111 338 1,744 1,035
May-09 818 18 299 1,407 972
Jun-09 1,146 20 312 2,765 913
Jul-09 1,212 18 267 2,615 759
Aug-09 1,083 95 325 2,860 744
Sep-09 862 142 303 1,845 831
Oct-09 935 63 221 1,672 581
Nov-09 1,419 67 170 1,340 289
Dec-09 667 38 134 1,534 908
Jan-10 589 76 234 975 626
Feb-10 685 71 270 1,205 804
Mar-10 1,311 60 407 1,321 1,112
Apr-10 1,336 42 456 1,714 1,420
May-10 1,528 22 373 1,724 1,080
Jun-10 1,483 25 210 1,525 790
Jul-10 1,548 25 116 727 670
Aug-10 1,269 40 127 1,041 527
Sep-10 601 400 101 1,921 438
Oct-10 811 23 143 1,245 663
Nov-10 651 30 128 1,324 575
Dec-10 728 44 92 887 382
Jan-11 660 32 146 1,264 329
Feb-11 809 18 197 1,317 652
Mar-11 1,162 22 419 1,712 468
Apr-11 1,297 18 421 1,744 1,261
May-11 966 62 306 1,603 896
Jun-11 1,070 33 187 1,722 933
Jul-11 553 71 145 1,327 847
Aug-11 469 90 112 1,850 809
Sep-11 251 142 122 1,902 578
Oct-11 702 30 119 1,543 957
Nov-11 710 8 90 1,502 420
Dec-11 546 12 60 1,200 797
Jan-12 855 17 141 1,481 966
Feb-12 752 17 220 1,557 923
Mar-12 741 16 258 1,627 1,115
Apr-12 950 24 224 1,974 1,491
May-12 1,100 41 163 1,978 2,302
Jun-12 2,006 9 217 1,619 642
Jul-12 1,289 8 150 1,996 1,508
Aug-12 541 7 250 2,717 1,128
Sep-12 705 6 205 2,414 531
Oct-12 723 9 276 2,113 381
Nov-12 618 11 208 1,936 1,990
Dec-12 338 16 128 3,139 3,072
Jan-13 312 18 177 2,498 2,045
Feb-13 215 19 334 1,541 1,596
Mar-13 206 12 289 2,924 1,680
Apr-13 228 16 342 2,551 1,851
May-13 137 20 392 2,921 1,890
Jun-13 343 24 226 2,088 989
Jul-13 389 22 254 1,664 1,586
Aug-13 432 8 196 2,029 1,049
Sep-13 189 31 180 1,531 1,147
Oct-13 115 32 22 1,759 871
Nov-13 132 14 3 1,596 1,057
Dec-13 382 22 1 1,145 827
Jan-14 229 10 13 869 915
Feb-14 296 12 10 1,179 1,126
Mar-14 224 4 10 1,131 1,407

Illegal Re-entry: Arizona Outpaces All Other Districts

Trends in prosecutions for illegal re-entry in each of the five border districts (shown in Figure 3) appear quite different from those seen earlier for illegal entry. Here again the plotted lines represent a moving monthly average of the actual prosecution counts shown in Table 3. While the two Texas border districts had the highest illegal entry prosecutions, the data indicate that Arizona clearly dominates in prosecution numbers for illegal re-entry. Moreover, the gap between the prosecution numbers in Arizona and the remaining border districts has been steadily growing. Indeed, the national trends are almost entirely a reflection of the trends in Arizona. Generally, aside from minor variation, recent trends in the other districts have been relatively flat or falling.



Figure 3. Prosecutions Filed for Illegal Re-entry in Southwest Border Districts (six-month moving average)
Month Arizona California South New Mexico Texas South Texas West
Mar-07 498 38 154 269 168
Apr-07 569 43 145 271 161
May-07 691 51 162 273 151
Jun-07 460 82 116 265 166
Jul-07 354 128 106 252 205
Aug-07 486 105 108 358 288
Sep-07 292 93 97 269 216
Oct-07 236 66 129 401 207
Nov-07 172 55 119 287 222
Dec-07 146 50 62 260 156
Jan-08 429 68 122 352 249
Feb-08 459 63 145 317 283
Mar-08 507 89 144 396 288
Apr-08 375 79 177 484 320
May-08 350 68 173 429 285
Jun-08 417 87 172 404 303
Jul-08 536 84 168 358 333
Aug-08 474 105 151 400 300
Sep-08 587 151 180 369 344
Oct-08 671 118 169 404 266
Nov-08 564 118 116 330 240
Dec-08 582 135 110 396 298
Jan-09 617 120 160 436 335
Feb-09 613 156 176 390 365
Mar-09 638 184 217 408 394
Apr-09 710 166 235 425 339
May-09 837 175 234 409 329
Jun-09 1,018 175 231 468 373
Jul-09 843 149 252 506 390
Aug-09 714 153 276 487 362
Sep-09 1,097 212 208 480 361
Oct-09 986 125 178 451 354
Nov-09 864 165 162 383 304
Dec-09 888 169 154 378 353
Jan-10 1,095 173 172 328 347
Feb-10 995 173 197 401 388
Mar-10 1,114 224 254 572 440
Apr-10 1,118 243 274 587 351
May-10 1,197 237 223 449 330
Jun-10 1,297 201 191 472 388
Jul-10 1,265 240 161 329 281
Aug-10 1,282 176 158 443 342
Sep-10 1,181 268 118 525 351
Oct-10 1,178 180 157 376 288
Nov-10 1,278 144 141 466 270
Dec-10 1,291 191 98 396 269
Jan-11 901 155 128 444 245
Feb-11 1,215 175 169 415 361
Mar-11 1,412 211 248 581 447
Apr-11 1,266 179 210 428 405
May-11 1,314 235 209 335 372
Jun-11 1,479 280 190 331 404
Jul-11 1,094 279 163 307 383
Aug-11 1,380 289 128 326 407
Sep-11 1,106 243 142 298 388
Oct-11 1,462 214 103 381 412
Nov-11 1,478 195 124 306 349
Dec-11 1,204 171 81 229 304
Jan-12 1,551 180 123 323 296
Feb-12 1,540 151 170 283 406
Mar-12 1,380 180 231 342 430
Apr-12 1,802 189 183 354 395
May-12 1,519 218 168 376 407
Jun-12 1,509 209 215 326 350
Jul-12 1,465 241 164 342 331
Aug-12 1,231 197 233 403 356
Sep-12 1,235 183 203 363 353
Oct-12 1,434 186 254 425 335
Nov-12 1,283 199 215 345 259
Dec-12 1,391 183 176 278 288
Jan-13 1,531 168 184 305 281
Feb-13 1,395 161 285 343 319
Mar-13 1,403 157 284 387 354
Apr-13 1,817 196 330 430 404
May-13 1,205 170 360 405 353
Jun-13 1,695 144 233 345 280
Jul-13 1,587 180 225 359 350
Aug-13 1,493 142 214 351 268
Sep-13 1,557 127 244 354 277
Oct-13 1,830 93 271 320 332
Nov-13 1,543 121 207 330 305
Dec-13 1,652 134 186 309 266
Jan-14 1,632 168 210 261 257
Feb-14 1,658 169 269 308 293
Mar-14 1,669 185 337 339 366