Immigration offenses accounted for 53.1 percent of all federal convictions so far in FY 2017. The second largest number were for federal violations of narcotic and drug laws (18.6%).

Declines in criminal prosecutions in both these areas contributed to the overall decline in total federal convictions this year. The pace of immigration convictions during the first ten months of FY 2017 was down 17.1 percent, while those for drug crimes have declined by 4.0 percent. Nationally, this year's federal drug convictions have fallen to their lowest recorded level since FY 1997.

The five districts along the southwest border with Mexico occupied the top five out of six spots as the most active districts in the country. This reflected the fact that immigration prosecutions - chiefly for illegal entry and re-entry - were such a dominant component of all federal prosecutions.

Relative to population size, the federal judicial district in Wyoming was the fifth most active in the country. It had five times the number of federal criminal convictions relative to its population size than the national average. The other top ranked districts based on per capita convictions were: South Dakota (ranked seventh), North Dakota (ranked eighth), Montana (ranked ninth), and Vermont (ranked tenth).

To read the full report, including details on the most common laws prosecuted and the relative role played by various federal investigative agencies, go to:

http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/crim/480/

In addition to these most recent overall figures, TRAC continues to offer free monthly reports on selected government agencies such as the FBI, ATF, DHS and the IRS. TRAC's reports also monitor program categories such as immigration, drugs, weapons, white collar crime and terrorism. For the latest information on prosecutions and convictions through July 2017, go to:

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

Even more detailed criminal enforcement information for the period from FY 1986 through July 2017 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.

If you want to be sure to receive notifications whenever updated data become available, sign up at:

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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:

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