§2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023
A mandatory minimum applied to 1 of the 12,869 people sentenced under §2L1.2 in fiscal year 2023. The median prison term was 8 months, and 61% of sentences were within the guideline range. Only 19 people were convicted after a trial.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States › §2L1.2: FY2023
In brief: A mandatory minimum applied to 1 of the 12,869 people sentenced under §2L1.2 in fiscal year 2023. The median prison term was 8 months, and 61% of sentences were within the guideline range. Only 19 people were convicted after a trial.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 12,869 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023. 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 series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
Mandatory Minimums Almost Never Applied
In fiscal year 2023, the Commission recorded whether a mandatory minimum prison term applied for 12,869 people sentenced under §2L1.2. It applied to 1 of them (less than 1%).
A mandatory minimum is a required lowest sentence set by statute. For this guideline it is rare in every year of the data, and the records here cannot show which statute any single case involved.
A Median of 8 Months
A prison term went to 12,672 of the 12,869 people (98%), and 191 (1%) received probation only. The median prison term was 8 months. A quarter of those sent to prison received 16 months or more, and a quarter received 4.2 months or less.
The median was 9 months in fiscal year 2022 and 8 months in fiscal year 2024. Fiscal year 2023 was lower than 2022 and about the same as 2024.
Everyone sentenced in federal court under any guideline in fiscal year 2023 numbered 64,124, with a median prison term of 30 months.
Guilty Pleas, Plea Agreements, and 19 Trials
A total of 12,850 people (more than 99%) pleaded guilty, and 19 were convicted after a trial. Among the guilty pleas, 47% had a written plea agreement and 53% were straight pleas with no agreement.
After a guilty plea the median prison term was 8 months. After a trial it was 21 months, based on 19 people convicted at trial and sent to prison. A group of 19 is small, so that median should be read with care.
Sentence Position Against the Guideline Range
For 12,867 people with the information, 61% (7,885) were sentenced within the guideline range. A sentence below the range at the government's request applied to 24% (3,132), and below the range without a government request to 11% (1,460). A sentence above the range applied to 3% (390).
In fiscal year 2022 the share within the range was 55%, and in fiscal year 2024 it was 65%. All guidelines combined had 42% within the range in fiscal year 2023.
Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution
Supervised release was ordered for 8,415 people (65%), with a median term of 36 months. A fine was ordered for 14 people (less than 1%), and restitution for 2 (less than 1%).
Where Fiscal Year 2023 Fits
The Sentencing Guidelines Manual titles §2L1.2 "Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States". The Commission files these cases under its Immigration offense type. Fiscal year 2023 ran from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023.
The count of 12,869 was higher than the 11,978 in fiscal year 2022 and higher than the 12,550 in fiscal year 2024. Over fiscal years 2016 to 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. The table lists each 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 the Records Cannot Show
Only people who were convicted and sentenced are counted. Acquittals and dismissals are not in the data, and prison terms are the terms imposed, not time served.
The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline. This post reports the federal numbers on their own.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2L1.2 (12,869), 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 (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2024 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (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. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.