Prosecutions for April 2011
Referring Agency: Immigration and Customs in Homeland Security
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during April 2011 the government reported 9540 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 4.1% 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 2011 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was down (-2.5 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 115 percent from levels reported in 2006.
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 33.9 percent instead of 115 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. Where a prosecution was initially filed in U.S. Magistrate Court and then transferred to the U.S. District Court, the magistrate filing date was used since this provides an earlier indicator of actual trends. 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 2011 was for "Immigration", accounting for 87.7 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (6.9%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In April 2011, 8013 defendants in cases for these matters were filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. These courts handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called "petty offenses." In addition, complaints are sometimes filed in the magistrate courts before an indictment or information is entered. In these cases, the matter starts in the magistrate courts and later moves to the district court where subsequent proceedings take place.
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 59 percent of all magistrate filings in April.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "08 USC 1326 - Reentry of deported alien" (27.1%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In April 2011, 1527 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during April there were an additional 2173 defendants whose cases moved from the magistrate courts to the U.S. district courts after an indictment or information was filed. The sections which follow cover both sets of cases and therefore cover all matters filed in district court during April.
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 2011referred by the Immigration and Customs in Homeland Security.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 08 USC 1326 - Reentry of deported alien 2,208 1 1 1 More 08 USC 1324 - Bringing in and harboring certain aliens 255 2 2 2 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 233 3 7 6 More 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 225 4 3 3 More 21 USC 952 - Importation of controlled substances 164 5 5 4 More 18 USC 1546 - Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents 121 6 4 7 More 08 USC 1325 - Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc. 68 7 6 5 More 18 USC 911 - False personification - Citizen of the US 40 8 8 12 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 35 9 9 9 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 29 10 10 10 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 ranked 1 five 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 ranked 2 five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846. "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 was ranked 7 a year ago, while it was ranked 6 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions—up 69.9 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 that involves " Attempt and conspiracy ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—136.4 percent—was registered for prosecutions under " False personification - Citizen of the US " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 911 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 23.2 percent—was Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1546 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 32.4 percent—was for filings where the lead charge was " Bringing in and harboring certain aliens " (Title 8 U.S.C Section 1324 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In April 2011 the Justice Department said the government brought 1446.2 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 17,959 482 1 3 4 More N Mexico 14,629 245 2 5 5 More Arizona 13,227 727 3 4 3 More Texas, W 12,096 618 4 2 2 More Texas, S 8,703 610 5 1 1 More N Dakota 4,081 22 6 27 24 More D. C. 2,201 11 7 90 90 More Iowa, N 1,748 19 8 56 31 More Utah 1,508 35 9 12 10 More Fla, S 1,367 76 10 6 6 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The Southern District of California (San Diego)—with 17959 prosecutions as compared with 1446.2 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during April 2011. The Southern District of California (San Diego) was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 4 for most frequent use 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 for most frequent use five years ago.
District of Arizona is now ranking 3rd. The District of Arizona was ranked 4 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 for most frequent use five years ago.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Utah , now ranked 9th , and North Dakota at 6th In the same order, these districts ranked 12th and 27th one year ago and 10th and 24th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 400 percent—was Washington, D.C. (Washington). This was the same district that had the largest increase— 1150 percent—when compared with five years ago.
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions— 33 percent—was North Dakota . But over the past five years, Southern District of Florida (Miami) showed the largest drop— 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 2011 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Brack, Robert C. N Mexico 122 1 1 2 More Jorgenson, Cindy K. Arizona 105 2 22 18 More Bury, David C. Arizona 89 3 19 17 More Crane, Randy Texas, S 89 3 4 8 More Collins, Raner Christercunean Arizona 74 5 17 16 More Hinojosa, Ricardo H. Texas, S 71 6 8 9 More Cardone, Kathleen Texas, W 70 7 7 7 More Montalvo, Frank Texas, W 69 8 5 4 More Martinez, Philip Ray Texas, W 68 9 9 6 More Kazen, George P. Texas, S 65 10 2 3 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 122 defendants in cases. Judge Brack appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 1) and five years ago (rank 2).
Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson in the District of Arizona ranked 2nd with 105 defendants in cases.
Judges David C. Bury in the District of Arizona and Randy Crane in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 3rd with 89 defendants in cases. Judge Crane appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 4) and five years ago (rank 8).
Report Generated: July 19, 2011
