Most of this increase has been for prosecution for criminal reentry. Prosecutions for criminal entry which historically were much more common but rarely resulted in any significant jail time have not shown much of any recovery. Similarly, criminal referrals from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have shown no real change.

In March 2020 the Trump administration invoked special border control procedures. Under Title 42 of the United States Code Section 265, most individuals without valid authorization were not allowed to enter the country and were immediately expelled. According to case-by-case records obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from CBP, Border Patrol referrals for criminal prosecution immediately plummeted. Border Patrol referrals in February 2020 had reached almost 10,000 but dropped to just 295 in April 2020.

For decades, federal criminal prosecutions for immigration violations had made up the majority of all offenses that federal prosecutors pursued. But this has not always been the case. At the beginning of the Clinton administration, one in ten criminal prosecutions recorded by assistant U.S. attorneys were immigration-related. This percentage began climbing during the Clinton administration, and continued rising during President George W. Bush's administration. During FY 2008, the last full year of the Bush administration, immigration-related criminal prosecutions topped 50 percent of all federal offenses for the first time.

The dominance of immigration prosecutions continued throughout the Obama administration and peaked in FY 2019 under President Trump when almost two out of every three criminal prosecutions (64%) were classified by federal prosecutors as immigration-related. During FY 2021, this immigration percentage dropped to roughly just one in four (27%). Thus far during the first seven months of FY 2022, immigration-related prosecutions have risen to 32 percent of all offenses prosecuted. Only time will tell how prosecution levels may change If and when Title 42 expulsions end.

To read the full report including details by district along the southwest border, go to:

https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/688

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 April 2022 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

Follow us on Twitter at:

https://twitter.com/tracreports

or like us on Facebook:

https://facebook.com/tracreports

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