§2L2.1 Trafficking in a Document Relating to Naturalization, Citizenship, or Legal Resident Status, or a United States Passport: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016
In fiscal year 2016, 130 people were sentenced in federal court with §2L2.1 as the primary guideline. Of those, 90 (69%) received a prison term, and the median prison term was 9.7 months. Within-range sentences made up 48% of the total.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2016, 130 people were sentenced in federal court with §2L2.1 as the primary guideline. Of those, 90 (69%) received a prison term, and the median prison term was 9.7 months. Within-range sentences made up 48% of the total.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 130 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016. 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.
What Guideline §2L2.1 Covers
The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual titles §2L2.1 "Trafficking in a Document Relating to Naturalization, Citizenship, or Legal Resident Status, or a United States Passport; False Statement in Respect to the Citizenship or Immigration Status of Another; Fraudulent Marriage to Assist Alien to Evade Immigration Law." A case is assigned to one primary guideline, the one for its most serious count.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission placed all 130 cases in this fiscal year in its Immigration offense type. Convicted and sentenced people are the only ones in that data. The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016.
Prison Terms in Fiscal Year 2016
Among the 130 people, 90 (69%) were sent to prison and 30 (23%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
Among those sent to prison, the median prison term was 9.7 months. A quarter received 14.1 months or more, and a quarter received 4 months or less. These are terms imposed, not time served.
The median across all guidelines in fiscal year 2016 was 24 months, and across fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under §2L2.1 it was 11 months. The all-guideline figure mixes every offense type and is context only.
How Sentences Related to the Guideline Range
Within the range: 48% (62 people). Below the range at the government's request: 20% (26). Below the range without a government request: 32% (42). Above the range: 0% (0).
The 48% within-range share is about the same as the 49% for all guidelines in fiscal year 2016. It is higher than the 45% for §2L2.1 across fiscal years 2016 to 2025.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 5 of the 130 people (4%).
Pleas, Trials, and Plea Agreements
A total of 124 of 130 people (95%) pleaded guilty, and 6 were convicted after a trial. Written plea agreements covered 81% of the guilty pleas, and 19% were straight pleas.
The median prison term was 9.5 months after a guilty plea and 12 months after a trial. Only 5 people sent to prison after a trial are behind that figure, which is too few to show a pattern.
Other Orders and Criminal History
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 71 people (55%), with a median term of 24 months. A fine was ordered for 25 people (19%) and restitution for 9 (7%).
Criminal history was mostly the lowest category: 86% were in category I and less than 1% in category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Later Years and Limits
In fiscal year 2017, 153 people were sentenced under §2L2.1, with a median prison term of 12 months and 50% of sentences within the range. The yearly table covers fiscal years 2016 to 2025, and 2016 is the first year in it.
The records do not describe the facts of any case or explain any sentence. There is no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline in the approved crosswalk, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 130 | 9.7 months | 95% |
| 2017 | 153 | 12 months | 95% |
| 2018 | 117 | 10 months | 97% |
| 2019 | 104 | 10 months | 93% |
| 2020 | 71 | 12 months | 90% |
| 2021 | 57 | 12 months | 100% |
| 2022 | 84 | 10 months | 94% |
| 2023 | 69 | 10 months | 97% |
| 2024 | 47 | 13.5 months | 89% |
| 2025 | 53 | 5.4 months | 100% |
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2L2.1 (130), 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)
- §2L2.1 Trafficking in a Document Relating to Naturalization, Citizenship, or Legal Resident Status, or a United States Passport: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2L2.1 Trafficking in a Document Relating to Naturalization, Citizenship, or Legal Resident Status, or a United States Passport: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017 (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.