Immigration Prosecutions for August 2010
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during August 2010 the government reported 6672 new immigration prosecutions. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 2.1% over the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants charged with immigration-related offenses 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 only slightlydown (-0.2 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 127 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 immigration prosecutions is 44.5 percent instead of 127 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 immigration prosecutions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of immigration 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. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Virtually all federal criminal prosecutions for immigration offenses in August 2010 (99 percent) were referred by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The two lead investigative agencies in DHS are Customs and Border Protection (CBP) whose border patrol agencies guard the county's borders, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), responsible for conducting most immigration criminal investigations under the immigration laws. See Figure 2.
Immigration Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In August 2010, 5563 defendants in immigration 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 August 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 54.2 percent of all magistrate filings in August.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "8 USC 1326 - Reentry of deported alien" (37.8%).
Immigration Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In August 2010, 1109 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during August there were an additional 1526 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 August.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of immigration matters filed in U.S. District Court during August 2010.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 8 USC 1326 - Reentry of deported alien 2,132 1 1 1 More 8 USC 1324 - Bringing in and harboring certain aliens 241 2 2 2 More 18 USC 1546 - Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents 98 3 3 4 More 8 USC 1325 - Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc. 55 4 4 3 More 18 USC 911 - False personification - Citizen of the US 33 5 5 5 More 18 USC 1544 - Misuse of passport 15 6 6 14 More 18 USC 1542 - False statement in application and use of passport 14 7 7 8 More 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 11 8 11 10 More 31 USC 5332 - Bulk Cash Smuggling into or out of the United States 6 9 28 24 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 4 10 14 15 More 18 USC 1028 - Fraud and related activity - id documents 4 10 10 9 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 "Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1546. "Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1546 was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was the 4 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions—up 300 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 31 U.S.C Section 5332 that involves " Bulk Cash Smuggling into or out of the United States ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—720 percent—was registered for prosecutions under " Misuse of passport " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1544 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 23.4 percent—was Fraud and related activity - id documents (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1028 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 51.7 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
Understandably, there is great variation in the number of immigration prosecutions that are filed in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of prosecutions of this type last month are shown in Table 3.
Judicial District Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Arizona 506 1 4 3 More Texas, S 461 2 1 1 More Texas, W 384 3 2 2 More Cal, S 363 4 3 5 More N Mexico 202 5 5 4 More Cal, C 50 6 6 6 More Utah 46 7 11 10 More Cal, E 42 8 8 12 More Puer Rico 39 9 16 16 More Fla, M 38 10 10 8 More Table 3: Top 10 districts
The District of Arizona—with 506 prosecutions—was the most active during August 2010. The District of Arizona was ranked 4 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 five years ago.
The Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 2nd. The Southern District of Texas (Houston) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 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 Utah , now ranked 7th , and Puerto Rico at 9th In the same order, these districts ranked 11th and 16th one year ago and 10th and 16th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in immigration prosecutions compared to one year ago— 75.4 percent—was Utah . Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 242 percent—was Southern District of California (San Diego).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in immigration prosecutions— 23.7 percent—was Puerto Rico . But over the past five years, showed the largest drop— 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 immigration crime cases of this type during August 2010 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Brack, Robert C. N Mexico 88 1 1 3 More Tagle, Hilda G. Texas, S 67 2 9 4 More Alvarez, Micaela Texas, S 67 2 3 1 More Kazen, George P. Texas, S 61 4 2 2 More Hinojosa, Ricardo H. Texas, S 60 5 5 11 More Crane, Randy Texas, S 60 5 4 9 More Hanen, Andrew S. Texas, S 60 5 7 5 More Jorgenson, Cindy K. Arizona 46 8 19 17 More Montalvo, Frank Texas, W 46 8 8 10 More Collins, Raner Christercunean Arizona 45 10 32 21 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 immigration filings .
Judge Robert C. Brack in the District of New Mexico ranked 1st with 88 defendants in immigration cases. Judge Brack appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 1) and five years ago (rank 3).
Judges Hilda G. Tagle in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) and Micaela Alvarez in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 2nd with 67 defendants in immigration cases. Judge Tagle appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 9) and five years ago (rank 4).Judge Alvarez appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 3) and five years ago (rank 1).
