Prosecutions for March 2010
Referring Agency: Immigration and Customs in Homeland Security
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during March 2010 the government reported 9290 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 32.4% 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 2010 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was down (-7.9 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 133 percent from levels reported in 2005.
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 20.4 percent instead of 133 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 March 2010 was for "Immigration", accounting for 88.5 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (5.3%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In March 2010, 7483 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 March 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 55.9 percent of all magistrate filings in March.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "8 USC 1326 - Reentry of deported alien" (30.3%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In March 2010, 1807 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during March there were an additional 1863 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 March.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during March 2010referred by the Immigration and Customs in Homeland Security.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 8 USC 1326 - Reentry of deported alien 2,208 1 1 1 More 8 USC 1324 - Bringing in and harboring certain aliens 310 2 2 2 More 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts A 257 3 3 3 More 18 USC 1546 - Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents 172 4 6 7 More 21 USC 952 - Importation of controlled substances 123 5 4 5 More 8 USC 1325 - Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc. 71 6 5 4 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 62 7 7 6 More 18 USC 911 - False personification - Citizen of the US 51 8 10 8 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 33 9 8 11 More 18 USC 1961 - RICO - definitions 26 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 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 2 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Ranked 3rd was "Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts A" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 841. "Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts A" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was the 3 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions—up 64.9 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 911 that involves " False personification - Citizen of the US ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—103.5 percent—was registered for prosecutions under " Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1546 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 36.9 percent—was Importation of controlled substances (Title 21 U.S.C Section 952 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 51.8 percent—was for filings where the lead charge was " Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc. " (Title 8 U.S.C Section 1325 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In March 2010 the Justice Department said the government brought 1474.1 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 16,612 430 1 3 4 More Texas, W 15,599 746 2 2 2 More N Mexico 15,013 243 3 5 5 More Texas, S 10,476 694 4 1 1 More Arizona 6,598 339 5 4 3 More Vermont 4,446 23 6 57 43 More Texas, E 2,631 73 7 30 27 More Utah 2,233 48 8 20 20 More Wyoming 1,872 8 9 37 75 More Nebraska 1,701 25 10 34 42 More
Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The Southern District of California (San Diego)—with 16612 prosecutions as compared with 1474.1 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during March 2010. The Southern District of California (San Diego) was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 4 five years ago.
The Western District of Texas (San Antonio) ranked 2nd. The Western District of Texas (San Antonio) was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
District of New Mexico is now ranking 3rd. The District of New Mexico was ranked 5 a year ago, while it was ranked 5 five years ago.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Utah , now ranked 8th , and Eastern District of Texas (Tyler) at 7th In the same order, these districts ranked 20th and 30th one year ago and 20th and 27th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 61.1 percent—was Eastern District of Texas (Tyler). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 500 percent—was Wyoming .
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions— 17.6 percent—was Wyoming . But over the past five years, Southern District of Florida (Miami) showed the largest drop— 12.3 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 March 2010 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Brack, Robert C. N Mexico 155 1 3 2 More Kazen, George P. Texas, S 118 2 1 1 More Alvarez, Micaela Texas, S 116 3 2 3 More Cardone, Kathleen Texas, W 110 4 5 4 More Crane, Randy Texas, S 96 5 8 9 More Martinez, Philip Ray Texas, W 96 5 6 6 More Montalvo, Frank Texas, W 95 7 7 5 More Briones, David Texas, W 90 8 4 7 More Hinojosa, Ricardo H. Texas, S 84 9 9 8 More Tagle, Hilda G. Texas, S 68 10 11 11 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 155 defendants in cases. Judge Brack appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 3) and five years ago (rank 2).
Judge George P. Kazen in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 2nd with 118 defendants in cases. Judge Kazen appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 1) and five years ago (rank 1).
Judge Micaela Alvarez in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 3rd with 116 defendants in cases. Judge Alvarez appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 2) and five years ago (rank 3).
