§2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2024
In fiscal year 2024, 584 of the people sentenced under §2L1.2 (5%) received a sentence above the guideline range, and 65% were within the range. The Commission counted 12,550 people, and the median prison term was 8 months. More than 99% pleaded guilty.
· Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States › §2L1.2: FY2024
In brief: In fiscal year 2024, 584 of the people sentenced under §2L1.2 (5%) received a sentence above the guideline range, and 65% were within the range. The Commission counted 12,550 people, and the median prison term was 8 months. More than 99% pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 12,550 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024. 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.
Sentences Above the Guideline Range in Fiscal Year 2024
For the 12,548 people with the information in fiscal year 2024, 5% (584) were sentenced above the guideline range. That was the least common of the range positions listed.
A sentence above the range means the court imposed more than the calculated range allowed. The records do not say why a court did so in any case.
The other results were 65% (8,164) within the range, 20% (2,462) below the range at the government's request, and 11% (1,338) below the range without a government request.
Prison Terms
The Commission counted 12,550 people with §2L1.2 as the primary guideline in fiscal year 2024. A prison term went to 12,011 (96%), and 538 (4%) received probation only.
Among those sent to prison, the median prison term was 8 months. A quarter received 16 months or more, and a quarter received 4.1 months or less. The median was also 8 months in fiscal year 2023 and 6 months in fiscal year 2025.
Pleas and Trials
A total of 12,526 people (more than 99%) pleaded guilty, and 24 were convicted after a trial. Among the guilty pleas, 38% had a written plea agreement and 61% were straight pleas with no agreement.
The median prison term was 8 months after a guilty plea and 21 months after a trial, based on 23 people convicted at trial and sent to prison. The trial group is small.
Mandatory Minimums, Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 2 of the 12,549 people with that information recorded (less than 1%).
Supervised release followed prison for 8,567 people (68%), with a median term of 36 months. A fine was ordered for 14 people (less than 1%), and restitution for 2 (less than 1%).
The Guideline in the Federal System
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, and each person counted had this as the primary guideline.
In fiscal year 2024, everyone sentenced under any guideline numbered 61,678. Their median prison term was 30 months, 97% pleaded guilty, and 46% were within the range. Fiscal year 2024 ran from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024.
Compared With Other Years
The fiscal year 2023 count was 12,869 and the fiscal year 2025 count was 18,204. The count for 2024 was lower than 2023 and lower than 2025.
Across 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 2024 share within the range matches that figure. 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 Cannot Be Told From the Data
The data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are not in it, and prison terms are those 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 2024 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2L1.2 (12,550), 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 2023 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2L1.2 Unlawfully Entering or Remaining in the United States: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2025 (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.