Two federal agencies within the Department of Homeland Security—Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—are the source of most immigration criminal referrals. Federal prosecutors continue to receive few referrals from CBP which is responsible for border enforcement and historically has accounted for most immigration prosecutions. With the pandemic, the Trump Administration has instituted a policy to quickly deport individuals attempting to enter the country illegally in place of detaining them and referring them for criminal prosecution. In contrast, criminal referrals from interior enforcement by ICE officials have recovered much—but not all—of the ground they lost during the early months of the pandemic.

Non-immigration criminal prosecution levels have also largely recovered in most U.S. Attorney offices across the country. Once immigration prosecutions are set aside, the volume of federal prosecutions filed in the vast majority of U.S. Attorney offices across the country are now occurring at rates similar to those before the pandemic hit and the closure in mid-March of federal offices. These findings are based on analyses of case-by-case Department of Justice records, updated through August 2020, obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University after litigation under the Freedom of Information Act.

However, not every location has recovered. Prosecution levels, for example, have not fully rebounded in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan). Nor in the Southern District of Florida. The Southern District of Texas (Houston) and the Northern District of California (San Francisco) have also not fully rebounded. But while these districts are home to large metropolitan areas, other big-city districts such as the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago) have largely recovered. Further, federal prosecutions in some districts in more rural parts of the country such as Maine and Vermont have also been slow to rebound.

To see the full report which includes details for each U.S. Attorney office, go to:

https://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/crim/626/

In addition to these most recent 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, and terrorism. Even more detailed criminal enforcement information for the period from FY 1986 through August 2020 is available to TRACFed subscribers via Express and Going Deeper tools. Go to https://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

https://trac.syr.edu/interpreter

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

https://tracfed.syr.edu/cgi-bin/tracuser.pl?pub=1

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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:

https://trac.syr.edu/cgi-bin/sponsor/sponsor.pl