Data Source
	US Courts*	Dept of Justice**
Magistrate Court	26,581	16,723
District Court	15,762	16,465
Total	42,343	33,188
Percent	63%	50%

*	Administrative Office of U.S. Court figures are based upon its published counts [see Tables D-9 and M2 at http://www.uscourts.gov/judbus2004/contents.html] for defendants charged with offenses under the "immigration laws." Magistrate figures include only petty offenses and exclude Class A misdemeanors as immigration offenses did not comprise a large enough category to be broken out separately. Thus, the AOUSC magistrate figures may represent an slight undercount of the actual volume of immigration defendants handled.
**	Department of Justice (Executive Office for United States Attorney) figures are based upon internal files obtained by TRAC after court litigation under the Freedom of Information Act. Historically, reporting systems for magistrate cases have not been as well maintained, and reporting of petty offenses in particular appear less reliable and complete than court recording systems. This is reflected in the lower reported counts above. Counts here reflect prosecutions completed resulting from DHS-Immigration referrals for criminal prosecution.