Immigration Prosecutions for July 2006
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during July 2006 the government reported filing 2998 new immigration prosecutions. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is down 10.3% 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 2006 prosecutions are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the filings were down (-7 percent). Prosecutions over the past year are still much higher than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that the prosecutions are up 114.6 percent from levels reported in 2001.
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 19.2 percent instead of 114.6 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 broad pattern of increase in immigration prosecutions over the past five years is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of immigration prosecutions 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.
Virtually all federal criminal prosecutions for immigration offenses in July 2006 (95 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.
Lead Charge in Immigration Prosecutions
US Magistrate Courts
In July 2006, 79 percent of immigration cases took place in U.S. Magistrate Courts which handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called "petty offenses." In the magistrate courts in July 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 46.3 percent of all magistrate filings in July.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "08 USC 1326 - Reentry of deported alien" (41.6%), "08 USC 1324 - Bringing in and harboring certain aliens" (7.6%).
US District Courts
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecution of immigration matters filed in U.S. District court during July 2006.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 08 USC 1326 - Reentry of deported alien 392 1 1 1 08 USC 1324 - Bringing in and harboring certain aliens 113 2 2 2 18 USC 1546 - Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and 34 3 4 4 08 USC 1325 - Entry of alien at improper time or place, etc. 21 4 3 3 18 USC 1028 - Fraud and related activity - id documents 13 5 9 7 18 USC 0911 - False personification - Citizen of the US 7 6 5 5 18 USC 1001 - Fraud/false statements generally 7 6 7 6 18 USC 0154 - Adverse interest and conduct of officers 5 8 23 - 18 USC 1542 - False statement in application and use of passport 5 8 8 8 18 USC 1543 - Forgery or false use of passport 4 10 6 11 42 USC 0408 - Fed Old Age, Survivors + Disab Insur -Penalties 4 10 11 17
Table 2: Top 10 charges filed
"Reentry of deported alien" (8 U.S.C Section 1326 ) was the most frequent recorded lead charge. This statute was also ranked 1st a year ago as well as 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 . This statute was also ranked 2nd a year ago as well as five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1546. This statute was ranked 4th a year ago, while it was the 4th most frequently invoked 5 years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions—up 350 percent—compared to one year ago was 18 U.S.C Section 154 that involves "Adverse interest and conduct of officers ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—350 percent—was registered for prosecutions under "Forgery or false use of passport " (18 U.S.C Section 1543).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 57.3 percent—was Entry of alien at improper time or place; etc. (8 U.S.C Section 1325 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 65.8 percent—was for filings where the lead charge was "False personification - Citizen of the US " (18 U.S.C Section 911 ).
Immigration Prosecutions by Judicial District
Understandably, there is great variation in number of immigration prosecutions that are filed in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts. The ten districts registering the largest number of prosecutions last month are shown in Table 3.
Southern District of Texas (Houston)—with 121 prosecutions—was the most active during July 2006. This district was also ranked 1st a year ago as well as five years ago.
Southern District of California (San Diego) ranked 2nd . This marked a rise from California South 's 5thplace ranking just one year ago. Five years ago, the district's position was 2.
Western District of Texas (San Antonio) is now ranking 3rd . It moved down in its rankings from a year ago when it ranked 2nd. Five years ago, the district's position was 4.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Oregon , now ranked 7th , and Kansas at 9th. In the same order, these districts ranked 18th and 24th one year ago and 8th and 30th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in immigration prosecutions compared to one year ago— 328.6 percent—was Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans). This was the same district that had the largest increase— 1100 %—when compared with five years ago.
In the last year, the judicial district court recording the largest drop in immigration prosecutions— 32.8 percent—was Arizona . But over the past five years, Oregon showed the largest drop— 24.7 percent.
Top Ranked District Judges
At any one time, there are about 680 federal district court judges working in the United States. For the entire nation, the judges recorded with the largest number of new immigration crime cases during July 2006 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Tagle, Hilda G. Texas, S 18 1 5 7 Hanen, Andrew S. Texas, S 16 2 4 - Rainey, John David Texas, S 13 3 15 141 Crane, Randy Texas, S 13 3 10 - Brack, Robert C. N Mexico 11 5 3 - Hinojosa, Ricardo H. Texas, S 11 5 9 10 Jack, Janis Graham Texas, S 11 5 14 52 Alvarez, Micaela Texas, S 10 8 1 - Belot, Monti L. Kansas 9 9 136 374 Kazen, George P. Texas, S 8 10 2 4
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 Hilda G. Tagle in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 1st with 18 defendants in new immigration cases. Judge Tagle also appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 5th) and five years ago (rank 7th).
Judge Andrew S. Hanen in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 2nd with 16 defendants in new immigration cases. Judge Hanen also appeared in the top ten rankings one year ago (ranked 4th).
Judge John David Rainey in Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 3rd with 13 new immigration cases.
