News from TRAC

Illegal Reentry Becomes Top Criminal Charge

(10 Jun 2011) Very timely Justice Department data show that during the first half of FY 2011 prosecutions for the crime of illegal reentry -- when Title 8, Section 1326 was the lead charge -- made up just under one quarter of all federal prosecutions and nearly half of all immigration prosecutions in the first half of FY 2011. The data, obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, also showed that conviction under this particular law, classified as a felony, resulted in an average prison sentence of 14 months. The second most common immigration crime -- illegal entry --- is a petty misdemeanor with an average sentence of one month.

Trends for the last twenty years show that the number of the more serious illegal reentry illegal prosecutions brought during the Obama years top those brought under previous administrations. For details, read the full report at:

http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/251/

TRAC continues to offer free reports on immigration as well as other program categories such as white collar crime, terrorism, weapons and drugs. In addition, TRAC's reports cover the enforcement activities of selected government agencies such as DHS, FBI, IRS and ATF. For the latest information on prosecutions and convictions through the first six months of fiscal year 2011, go to:

http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/

Even more detailed criminal enforcement information for the period from FY 1986 through March 2011 is available to TRACFED subscribers via the Express and Going Deeper tools. Go to http://tracfed.syr.edu for more information. Customized reports for a specific agency, district, program, lead charge or judge are available via the TRAC Data Interpreter, either as part of a TRACFED subscription or on a per-report basis. Go to http://trac.syr.edu/interpreter to start.

TRAC is self-supporting and depends on foundation grants, individual contributions and subscription fees for the funding needed to obtain, analyze and publish the data we collect on the activities of the US Federal government. To help support TRAC's ongoing efforts, go to:

http://trac.syr.edu/sponsor/