Putting TRAC to Work
  News Organizations
The Wall Street Journal
February 17, 2015

Meet the Judge Who Sentences More People Than Any Other
By Joe Palazzolo


Judge Robert C. Brack of the federal district court in New Mexico has sentenced 6,708 defendants in the past five years — nearly 2,000 more than any other federal judge. The figures come from a new report by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a group that collects and analyzes federal data. We profiled Judge Brack, who sits in the border town of Las Cruces, in this 2013 story. The vast majority of men and women he sentenced were convicted of immigration-related crimes, and in recent years, Judge Brack has used his notoriety as one of the nation’s busiest judges as a platform to push for change. From the TRAC report: Judge Brack is not proud of his distinctive record. “It just tears at my heart,” he said in a brief conversation with TRAC. The judge, in this and other interviews, has said he does not agree with the heavy reliance of Congress and the administration in using criminal sanctions as an important way to deal with the flood of undocumented individuals attempting to come to the United States, especially along the borders with Mexico. On the day Judge Brack was interviewed, he said one mother he had just convicted would not be able to legally return to her family in Los Angeles since she would be deported and barred from returning.


Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
Copyright 2015
TRAC TRAC at Work TRAC TRAC at Work News Organizations News Organizations