Prosecutions for April 2008
Referring Agency: Immigration and Customs in Homeland Security
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during April 2008 the government reported 10168 new prosecutions for these matters. Those cases were referred by the Immigration and Customs in Homeland Security. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 14.4% over the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants charged are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. (See Table 1)
When monthly 2008 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was up (71.8 percent). Prosecutions over the past year are still much higher than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are up 167.3 percent from levels reported in 2003.
The substantial growth in these cases is partly related to increases in the matters filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. If magistrate cases are excluded and only Federal District Court cases are counted, the overall increase in prosecutions is 13.8 percent instead of 167.3 percent. The evidence suggests that part of the difference may be the result of improvements in the recording of the magistrate cases by the Justice Department.
The increase from the levels five years ago in prosecutions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of prosecutions of this type recorded on a month-to-month basis. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. The one and five-year rates of change in Table 1 and in the sections that follow are all based upon this six-month moving average.
Cases were classified by prosecutors into more specific types.
The largest number of prosecutions of these matters in April 2008 was for "Immigration", accounting for 90.9 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (5.7%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In April 2008, 71 percent of cases for these matters took place in U.S. Magistrate Courts which handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called "petty offenses." In the magistrate courts in April the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 8 U.S.C Section 1325 involving the "Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc.". This was the lead charge for 72 percent of all magistrate filings in April.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "8 USC 1326 - Reentry of deported alien" (17.6%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during April 2008referred by the Immigration and Customs in Homeland Security.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 8 USC 1326 - Reentry of deported alien 1,520 1 1 1 More 8 USC 1324 - Bringing in and harboring certain aliens 425 2 2 3 More 8 USC 1325 - Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc. 223 3 5 4 More 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts A 223 3 3 2 More 18 USC 1546 - Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents 132 5 6 7 More 21 USC 952 - Importation of controlled substances 85 6 4 5 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 72 7 7 6 More 18 USC 1001 - Fraud/false statements or entries generally 50 8 11 8 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 32 9 8 14 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 25 10 10 12 More
Table 2: Top charges filed
"Reentry of deported alien" (Title 8 U.S.C Section 1326) was the most frequent recorded lead charge. "Reentry of deported alien" (Title 8 U.S.C Section 1326) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was the 1 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Bringing in and harboring certain aliens" under Title 8 U.S.C Section 1324. "Bringing in and harboring certain aliens" under Title 8 U.S.C Section 1324 was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was the 3 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Ranked 3rd were "Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc." under Title 8 U.S.C Section 1325 and "Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts A" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 841. "Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc." under Title 8 U.S.C Section 1325 was ranked 5 a year ago, while it was the 4 most frequently invoked 5 years ago.."Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts A" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 was rank ed 3 a year ago, while it was the 2 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions—up 65.1 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 8 U.S.C Section 1325 that involves " Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc. ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—250 percent—was registered for prosecutions under " Material involving sexual exploitation of minors " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 2252 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 28.4 percent—was Importation of controlled substances (Title 21 U.S.C Section 952 ). This was the same statute that had the largest decrease— 47.1 %—when compared with five years ago.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In April 2008 the Justice Department said the government brought 1198.8 prosecutions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the per capita number of prosecutions that are filed in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of prosecutions per capita for these matters last month are shown in Table 3. Districts must have at least 5 prosecutions to receive a ranking.
Judicial District Percapita Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Cal, S 14,856 384 1 3 3 More N Mexico 13,322 217 2 5 5 More Texas, W 10,784 516 3 2 2 More Texas, S 10,016 668 4 1 1 More Arizona 4,573 235 5 4 4 More Fla, S 1,864 102 6 6 6 More Ark, E 1,841 24 7 32 64 More Wash, E 1,534 18 8 29 25 More Idaho 1,391 17 9 35 30 More Minnesota 1,092 47 10 44 61 More
Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The Southern District of California (San Diego)—with 14856 prosecutions as compared with 1198.8 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during April 2008. The Southern District of California (San Diego) was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 five years ago.
The District of New Mexico ranked 2nd. The District of New Mexico was ranked 5 a year ago, while it was ranked 5 five years ago.
Western District of Texas (San Antonio) is now ranking 3rd. The Western District of Texas (San Antonio) was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Eastern District of Washington (Spokane), now ranked 8th , and Eastern District of Arkansas (Little Rock) at 7th In the same order, these districts ranked 29th and 32nd one year ago and 25th and 64th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 82.9 percent—was Minnesota . This was the same district that had the largest increase— 392.3 %—when compared with five years ago.
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions— 31.4 percent—was Eastern District of Arkansas (Little Rock). But over the past five years, Arizona showed the largest drop— 31.5 percent.
Top Ranked District Judges
At any one time, there are about 680 federal District Court judges working in the United States. The judges recorded with the largest number of new crime cases of this type during April 2008 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Brack, Robert C. N Mexico 110 1 1 101 More Kazen, George P. Texas, S 101 2 3 7 More Alvarez, Micaela Texas, S 90 3 2 - More Crane, Randy Texas, S 90 3 8 9 More Cardone, Kathleen Texas, W 85 5 7 518 More Montalvo, Frank Texas, W 82 6 5 518 More Martinez, Philip Ray Texas, W 80 7 6 2 More Hinojosa, Ricardo H. Texas, S 79 8 9 11 More Briones, David Texas, W 77 9 4 1 More Hanen, Andrew S. Texas, S 76 10 11 8 More
Table 4: Top 10 judges
All 10 of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of filings per capita.
Judge Robert C. Brack in the District of New Mexico ranked 1st with 110 defendants in cases. Judge Brackalso appeared in the top ten rankings one year ago(ranked 1).
Judge George P. Kazen in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 2nd with 101 defendants in cases. Judge Kazen appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 3) and five years ago (rank 7).
Judges Micaela Alvarez in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) and Randy Crane in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 3rd with 90 defendants in cases. Judge Alvarezalso appeared in the top ten rankings one year ago(ranked 2).Judge Crane appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 8) and five years ago (rank 9).
