Federal Criminal Prosecutions Drop Along Southwest Border

The latest available case-by-case records from federal prosecutors for February 2019 show Customs and Border Protection (CBP)-referred prosecutions dropped by 12 percent last month. At the same time, the number of Border Patrol apprehensions rose between January and February. While most attention has been given to the jump in the number of families, the number of adults traveling without children picked up by Border Patrol agents were up by 26 percent in February over January levels.

Under this Administration's announced "zero tolerance" policy, adults traveling without children continue to be subject to criminal prosecution for illegal entry. But with apprehensions up and criminal prosecutions down, this left a much larger number who were not referred for criminal prosecution. See Table 1 and Figure 1.


Figure 1. Southwest Border Patrol Arrests of Adults Traveling Alone
(Click for larger image)

During February 2019, a generous estimate indicates criminal prosecutions had fallen to only 38 percent of total Border Patrol apprehensions of adults arrested traveling alone and not part of any family group. This does not count individuals at ports-of-entry who were found seeking to unlawfully enter using fraudulent documents, or individuals caught at ports-of-entry illegally smuggling individuals, drugs, or cargo.


Figure 2. Southwest Border Patrol Arrests and Prosecutions of Adults Traveling Without Children, February 2019
(Click for larger image)
  Prosecuted Total Arrests
Month Yes No
Oct-18 11,652 11,266 22,918
Nov-18 10,575 10,856 21,431
Dec-18 8,137 10,342 18,479
Jan-19 10,250 8,426 18,676
Feb-19 8,998 14,453 23,451
Feb vs Jan -12% 72% 26%
Feb vs Oct -23% 28% 2%
Table 1. Southwest Border Patrol Arrests of Adults Traveling Alone

As compared with last October, the first month of the new fiscal year, prosecutions in February were lower in all five of the judicial districts bordering Mexico. Relative declines were largest in the Southern District of California (San Diego) - down 35 percent, and the Southern District of Texas (Houston) - down 34 percent. Four out of five of these districts also experienced declines when February prosecution numbers were compared to those in January. See Table 2. Yet arrests of adults traveling without children rose in all Border Patrol sectors between January and February 2019. See Table 3.

Table 2. Southwest Border Criminal Prosecutions Referred by Customs and Border Protection
Federal Prosecutions Referred by CBP
Month Arizona Cal S N Mex Tex S Tex W SW Total
Oct-18 2,082 1,400 713 5,398 2,059 11,652
Nov-18 1,927 981 655 5,262 1,750 10,575
Dec-18 1,577 776 471 4,138 1,175 8,137
Jan-19 2,193 1,200 472 4,387 1,998 10,250
Feb-19 1,904 905 628 3,585 1,976 8,998
Feb vs Jan -13% -25% 33% -18% -1% -12%
Feb vs Oct -9% -35% -12% -34% -4% -23%
Table 3. Southwest Border Patrol Arrests of Adults Traveling Alone
  Arrests of Adults Traveling Without Children  
Border Patrol Sector Oct-18 Nov-18 Dec-18 Jan-19 Feb-19 Feb vs Jan
Big Bend 501 381 424 438 598 37%
Del Rio 1,309 1,111 949 1,322 1,509 14%
El Centro 2,205 2,002 1,492 1,417 1,786 26%
El Paso 1,325 1,394 1,143 1,285 1,718 34%
Laredo 3,063 2,439 1,837 2,367 2,807 19%
Rio Grande 6,920 6,918 5,857 5,587 8,003 43%
San Diego 2,840 2,771 3,046 2,722 3,024 11%
Tucson 4,195 3,841 3,194 3,068 3,448 12%
Yuma 560 574 537 470 558 19%
Southwest Border Total 22,918 21,431 18,479 18,676 23,451 26%
Source: Border Patrol southwest border monthly apprehensions, updated through February 2019.

TRAC offers free monthly reports on program categories such as white collar crime, immigration, drugs, weapons and terrorism and on selected government agencies such as the IRS, FBI, ATF and DHS. For the latest information on prosecutions and convictions, go to http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/. In addition, subscribers to the TRACFed data service can generate custom reports for a specific agency, judicial district, program category, lead charge or judge via the TRAC Data Interpreter.