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# §2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022
- URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2l1-2-unlawfully-entering-or-remaining-in-the-united-fy2022/
- Published: 2026-11-04T09:51:59.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-04T09:51:59.000Z
- Description: In fiscal year 2022, 30 people were convicted after a trial under §2L1.2, and their median prison term was 35 months. The other 11,948 pleaded guilty, with a median of 9 months. The Commission counted 11,978 people in all, and 55% were sentenced within the guideline range.
- Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart
- Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal

[Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › [§2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2l1-2-unlawfully-entering-or-remaining-in-the-united/) › §2L1.2: FY2022

**In brief:** In fiscal year 2022, 30 people were convicted after a trial under §2L1.2, and their median prison term was 35 months. The other 11,948 pleaded guilty, with a median of 9 months. The Commission counted 11,978 people in all, and 55% were sentenced within the guideline range.

Updated November 4, 2026 · Sources: U.S. Sentencing Commission and Federal Judicial Center, fiscal years 2016–2025

This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 11,978 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022\. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025\. It is part of the [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) series, which builds on [Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/). How the numbers were built: [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/).

## 30 Trial Convictions and 11,948 Guilty Pleas

Of the 11,978 people sentenced under §2L1.2 in fiscal year 2022, 11,948 (more than 99%) pleaded guilty. A total of 30 were convicted after a trial.

The median prison term after a guilty plea was 9 months. After a trial it was 35 months, based on 30 people convicted at trial and sent to prison. The trial group is small, and the records do not describe how those cases differed from the plea cases.

Among the guilty pleas, 52% had a written plea agreement and 48% were straight pleas with no agreement. The shares of straight pleas and written agreements were close to each other in this year.

## Prison Terms

A prison term went to 11,890 people (more than 99%), and 84 (less than 1%) received probation only. Among those sent to prison, the median prison term was 9 months. A quarter received 16 months or more, and a quarter received 4.9 months or less.

The median was 10 months in fiscal year 2021 and 8 months in fiscal year 2023\. The 2022 median was lower than the first and higher than the second.

## Range Position

For the 11,963 people with the information, 55% (6,631) were sentenced within the guideline range. A sentence below the range at the government's request applied to 29% (3,419), and below the range without a government request to 14% (1,710). Above the range applied to 2% (203).

The share within the range was 54% in fiscal year 2021 and 61% in fiscal year 2023\. For all guidelines combined in fiscal year 2022, it was 42%.

## The Guideline and Its Offense Type

The Sentencing Guidelines Manual titles §2L1.2 "Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States". The Commission places all 11,978 cases in its Immigration offense type, and the guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count in each case.

Fiscal year 2022 ran from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022\. The count was higher than the 11,565 in fiscal year 2021 and lower than the 12,869 in fiscal year 2023.

## Mandatory Minimums, Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution

A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 6 of the 11,976 people with that information recorded (less than 1%).

Supervised release followed prison for 7,616 people (64%), with a median term of 36 months. A fine was ordered for 16 people (less than 1%), and restitution for 3 (less than 1%).

## Placing 2022 Within the Longer Record

From fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2025, §2L1.2 covered 158,846 people. Of those, 97% were sent to prison, the median prison term was 7 months, and 65% were within the range. In fiscal year 2022, everyone sentenced under any guideline numbered 64,142, with a median prison term of 30 months and 97% guilty pleas. The table shows the count, median, and plea rate by year.

| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
| ----------- | ---------------- | ------------- | -------------- |
| 2016        | 15,813           | 9 months      | more than 99%  |
| 2017        | 15,895           | 9 months      | more than 99%  |
| 2018        | 18,241           | 6 months      | more than 99%  |
| 2019        | 22,077           | 6 months      | more than 99%  |
| 2020        | 19,654           | 5 months      | more than 99%  |
| 2021        | 11,565           | 10 months     | more than 99%  |
| 2022        | 11,978           | 9 months      | more than 99%  |
| 2023        | 12,869           | 8 months      | more than 99%  |
| 2024        | 12,550           | 8 months      | more than 99%  |
| 2025        | 18,204           | 6 months      | more than 99%  |

## What Is Missing From the Data

The Commission counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are not in the files, and prison terms are the terms imposed, not time served.

The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own.

### How We Counted

Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2L1.2 (11,978), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.

Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30\. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.

### What to Keep in Mind

**No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct.** Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987\. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.

**Federal supervised release.** Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.

**Who decides the sentence, and under what rules.** Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.

**Time periods.** Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.

**How life sentences and "time served" are counted.** In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.

**Mandatory minimum sentences.** Many federal statutes on drugs, images of child exploitation, child sex abuse, and firearms carry mandatory minimum prison terms. The UCMJ has mandatory minimums only for a few offenses (a dishonorable discharge or dismissal for rape and sexual assault, and life for premeditated murder). Federal sentences for these offenses are partly set by Congress, not by the judge.

## Related Analysis

- [Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/) (the background article)
- [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) (all federal posts)
- [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/) (sources and method)
- [§2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2l1-2-unlawfully-entering-or-remaining-in-the-united/) (overview)
- [§2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2l1-2-unlawfully-entering-or-remaining-in-the-united-fy2021/) (previous or next fiscal year)
- [§2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2l1-2-unlawfully-entering-or-remaining-in-the-united-fy2023/) (previous or next fiscal year)
- [How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-sentences-outside-guideline-range/)
- [Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-mandatory-minimum-sentences/)
- [U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles](https://www.ussc.gov/research/datafiles/commission-datafiles?ref=bodiesburied.com) (source)
- [Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants)](https://www.fjc.gov/research/idb?ref=bodiesburied.com) (source)

**About the author.** Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts *Where All The Bodies Are Buried* and runs the [Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.