Graphical Highlights

Immigration Cases
Defendents Disposed of in Magistrate Court and District Court

District Fiscal
Year
U.S. Courts* Dept. of Justice**
Magistrate
Court
District
Court
Total Magistrate
Court
District
Court
Total
United States 2003 16,231 15,296 31,527 3,052 17,136 20,188
2004 26,581 15,762 42,343 16,723 16,465 33,188

 Southwest Border Federal Judicial Districts
Arizona 2003 2,740 2,503 5,243 178 2,541 2,719
2004 4,649 2,398 7,047 268 2,085 2,353
Cal, S. 2003 3 1,929 1,932 128 2,488 2,616
2004 3 2,022 2,025 139 2,585 2,724
N Mexico 2003 37 1,422 1,459 231 1,636 1,867
2004 3 1,414 1,417 75 1,368 1,443
Texas, S. 2003 8,626 2,886 11,512 454 3,037 3,491
2004 16,176 3,035 19,211 13,905 3,231 17,136
Texas, W. 2003 4,227 1,755 5,982 1,483 1,768 3,251
2004 5,261 1,815 7,076 1,829 1,405 3,234

*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 and http://www.uscourts.gov/judbus2003/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.


Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
Copyright 2005