Latest Figures on the Use of
Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Court Cases

There has been no drop-off in the government's use of prosecutorial discretion (PD) as a basis to close cases and allow an individual to remain in this country, according to case-by-case Immigration Court records current through February 2015.

Since October 2011 (FY 2012), a total of 6.7 percent of all Immigration Court completions were PD closures. During January and February 2015, the rate of recent PD closures was even higher than the long term average. For the 28,703 cases recorded as closed during this two month period, a total of 2,389 or 8.3 percent were PD closures.

Variation in PD Usage by Hearing Location

However, the use of PD closures varies widely depending upon the hearing location. This is true whether examining cumulative usage since FY 2012 or focusing just on recent PD closures.

Cumulative PD Usage. For hearing locations that closed at least 200 cases since FY 2012, recorded PD closures over this cumulative period ranged from none at all to a high of 39.1 percent. The five locations with the highest PD usage rates were: Tucson, Arizona (39.1%); Seattle, Washington (26.3%); Omaha, Nebraska (24.7%); Los Angeles, California (24.5%); and Charlotte, North Carolina (18.1%).

If the focus is simply on those hearing locations where the greatest number of PD closures occurred during this period, then the clear standout was Los Angeles with a total of 13,333 PD dispositions. This accounted for roughly one out of every four of all PD closures nationwide. This is because the Los Angeles court handled a particularly large caseload along with having a high PD closure rate. Despite much smaller caseloads, Charlotte was second with 2,616 PD closures, followed by Seattle with 2,207. Even with much lower PD closure rates, New York City (2,102) and San Francisco (1,925) came in fourth and fifth respectively, due to their relatively large caseloads.

To see the complete list of hearing locations and the number as well as rate of PD closure, see TRAC's prosecutorial discretion tool which is updated each month.

January — February 2015 PD Usage. Among the 63 hearing locations that recorded closing 100 or more cases during January and February 2015, more than half had fewer than 5 PD closures and 29 locations had none (see Table 1).

At the other extreme, 62.6 percent of Tucson, Arizona's 195 Immigration Court closures resulted from the exercise of prosecutorial discretion. The next highest rate was found in Los Angeles, California, with one third (33.8%) of its 3,141 completions due to PD closures. In third place was Atlanta, Georgia with a PD closure rate of 23.1 percent during this same period. Bloomington, Minnesota - BLM with a PD closure rate of 19.4 percent, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with an 18.1 percent PD closure rate were fourth and fifth, respectively. All of these rates represent a considerable jump over their cumulative rates since FY 2012.

Table 1 lists all 63 hearing locations reporting at least 100 closures during February, along with the number of PD closures and the PD closure rate for January and February 2015 as compared with their cumulative rates since FY 2012. Sort by any column to focus on different characteristics.

Table 1. Use of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Court
by Hearing Location and Time Period (click column header to sort)
Immigration
Court
Hearing
Location
Cumulative Cases Closed
Since FY 2012
January - February 2015
Cases Closed
Total PD
Closure
Percent
PD
Total PD
Closure
Percent
PD
All Immigration Courts 661,118 44,392 6.7% 28,703 2,389 8.3%
Tucson Tucson, Arizona 1,710 668 39.1% 195 122 62.6%
Los Angeles Los Angeles, California 54,345 13,333 24.5% 3,141 1,062 33.8%
Atlanta Atlanta, Georgia 11,123 1,351 12.1% 839 194 23.1%
Bloomington Bloomington, Minnesota - BLM 5,865 628 10.7% 278 54 19.4%
Philadelphia Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 6,763 689 10.2% 232 42 18.1%
El Paso El Paso, Texas 4,842 246 5.1% 371 59 15.9%
New Orleans New Orleans, Louisiana 3,296 257 7.8% 440 66 15.0%
Seattle Seattle, Washington 8,395 2,207 26.3% 228 33 14.5%
Omaha Omaha, Nebraska 5,562 1,374 24.7% 237 34 14.3%
Memphis Memphis, Tennessee 6,821 1,176 17.2% 311 39 12.5%
Hartford Hartford, Connecticut 3,471 179 5.2% 145 18 12.4%
San Diego San Diego, California 8,473 1,377 16.3% 311 38 12.2%
Chicago Chicago, Illinois 17,086 1,044 6.1% 625 51 8.2%
Denver Denver, Colorado 8,191 1,048 12.8% 209 17 8.1%
Orlando Orlando, Florida 12,674 1,619 12.8% 791 61 7.7%
Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri 6,076 597 9.8% 182 13 7.1%
Arlington Arlington, Virginia 12,547 812 6.5% 609 42 6.9%
Charlotte Charlotte 14,446 2,616 18.1% 623 42 6.7%
Miami Miami, Florida 25,667 1,624 6.3% 1,329 87 6.5%
Newark Newark, New Jersey 12,831 519 4.0% 359 23 6.4%
New York New York City, New York 58,147 2,102 3.6% 2,696 132 4.9%
Bloomington Bloomington Juvenile 349 12 3.4% 126 6 4.8%
Boston Boston, Massachusetts 13,190 814 6.2% 302 11 3.6%
Cleveland Cleveland, Ohio 4,041 292 7.2% 154 5 3.2%
San Francisco San Francisco, California 21,414 1,925 9.0% 1,427 43 3.0%
San Antonio San Antonio, Texas 11,327 436 3.8% 178 5 2.8%
Las Vegas Las Vegas, Nevada 5,951 218 3.7% 202 4 2.0%
Phoenix Phoenix, Arizona 9,423 1,579 16.8% 684 13 1.9%
Baltimore Baltimore, Maryland 13,702 665 4.9% 686 11 1.6%
Dallas Dallas, Texas 8,962 396 4.4% 386 5 1.3%
West Valley Salt Lake City, Utah 4,601 113 2.5% 109 1 0.9%
Buffalo Buffalo, New York 3,038 64 2.1% 112 1 0.9%
Arlington Arlington Detained Location 4,890 10 0.2% 184 1 0.5%
Eloy Eloy INS Detention Center 9,665 18 0.2% 351 1 0.3%
Houston Houston, Texas 10,712 113 1.1% 833 0 0.0%
Lumpkin Stewart Detention Center - Lumpkin Georgia - LGD 20,576 14 0.1% 525 0 0.0%
Houston - Detained Joe Corley Detention Facility 5,958 1 0.0% 387 0 0.0%
Los Fresnos Port Isabel Service Processing Center 7,632 3 0.0% 355 0 0.0%
Dallas Southwest Key 2,268 23 1.0% 352 0 0.0%
San Antonio Pearsall, Texas - Detention Facility 7,688 6 0.1% 311 0 0.0%
Adelanto Adelanto Detention Facility West 4,084 1 0.0% 294 0 0.0%
Oakdale Lasalle Detention Facility 7,202 3 0.0% 292 0 0.0%
El Paso El Paso Service Processing Center 7,322 8 0.1% 277 0 0.0%
Tacoma Northwest Detention Center 7,915 1 0.0% 236 0 0.0%
Harlingen Harlingen, Texas 6,800 291 4.3% 214 0 0.0%
Houston - Detained Houston Service Processing Center 7,639 1 0.0% 209 0 0.0%
Miami - Krome Krome North Service Processing Center 7,288 2 0.0% 200 0 0.0%
Chicago Chicago Detained 8,058 0 0.0% 196 0 0.0%
York York County Prison 5,245 0 0.0% 179 0 0.0%
Florence Florence, Arizona 5,976 5 0.1% 172 0 0.0%
Boston Boston, Massachusetts 684 0 0.0% 158 0 0.0%
Portland Portland, Oregon 3,487 295 8.5% 143 0 0.0%
San Antonio T. Don Hutto Residential 1,896 1 0.1% 142 0 0.0%
Dallas Rolling Plains Detention Center 4,708 0 0.0% 128 0 0.0%
San Francisco San Francisco Detained 5,278 2 0.0% 123 0 0.0%
Oakdale DHS-Litigation Unit/Oakdale 5,791 7 0.1% 119 0 0.0%
San Diego Corrections Corporation of America-San Diego, CA 3,561 0 0.0% 118 0 0.0%
Chicago Chicago Non-Detained Juveniles 661 4 0.6% 118 0 0.0%
Los Angeles Los Angeles 3 4,641 1 0.0% 116 0 0.0%
Charlotte Charlotte Juvenile 884 1 0.1% 115 0 0.0%
San Antonio San Antonio Non-Detained Juvenile 464 6 1.3% 115 0 0.0%
Denver Denver Detention Facility 4,600 0 0.0% 109 0 0.0%
Miami - Krome Broward Transitional Center 4,631 0 0.0% 102 0 0.0%