§2L2.2 Fraudulently Acquiring Documents Relating to Naturalization, Citizenship, or Legal Resident Status for Own Use: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018
In fiscal year 2018, 935 people were sentenced in federal court under §2L2.2, a higher count than the 691 in fiscal year 2017. The median prison term was 4 months, 87% received a prison term, and 71% were sentenced within the guideline range.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2018, 935 people were sentenced in federal court under §2L2.2, a higher count than the 691 in fiscal year 2017. The median prison term was 4 months, 87% received a prison term, and 71% were sentenced within the guideline range.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 935 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018. 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.
How the Count Changed Around Fiscal Year 2018
The U.S. Sentencing Commission recorded 935 people sentenced under §2L2.2 in fiscal year 2018, which ran from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018. The year before, fiscal year 2017, the number was 691. The year after, fiscal year 2019, it was 962.
Median prison terms for those years were 4.4 months, 4 months, and 3.5 months. The share sentenced within the guideline range was 74%, 71%, and 73%. This data does not show why counts or medians differ from one year to the next.
Who Was Sent to Prison
814 of the 935 people (87%) were sentenced to prison. Another 102 (11%) got probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
A quarter of the people in prison received 6 months or more, and a quarter received 2 months or less. The median was 4 months. Each figure is the term imposed by the court and not the time spent in custody. Across all 69,425 people sentenced in federal court that year, for every offense, the median prison term was 24 months.
Where Sentences Fell Relative to the Recommended Range
The guidelines recommend a range for each case, and all 935 people had that information recorded. 666 of them (71%) were sentenced inside it. 139 (15%) were sentenced below it with no request from the government, and 117 (13%) were sentenced below it on the government's request. 13 (1%) were sentenced above it.
Federal court as a whole had 51% of sentences inside the range in fiscal year 2018. Sentences inside the range were therefore more common under this guideline. Of the 934 people with mandatory minimum information, 31 (3%) had a mandatory minimum prison term.
A Small Number of Trials
913 people (98%) pleaded guilty. 22 were convicted after a trial. For comparison, 97% of all federal defendants pleaded guilty that year.
People who pleaded guilty and went to prison had a median term of 4 months. For those convicted at trial and sent to prison, the median was 6 months. That second figure rests on 17 people. Plea paperwork differed as well: 42% of guilty pleas included a written agreement, and 58% did not.
Supervised Release, Money Penalties, and Criminal History
504 people (54%) had supervised release ordered to follow prison, for a median of 24 months. 25 (3%) were fined. 5 (less than 1%) were ordered to pay restitution.
82% of the people were in criminal history category I, the lowest, and less than 1% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial files do not record criminal history.
Reading the Guideline Title and Offense Type
The manual's full title for §2L2.2 is "Fraudulently Acquiring Documents Relating to Naturalization, Citizenship, or Legal Resident Status for Own Use; False Personation or Fraudulent Marriage by Alien to Evade Immigration Law; Fraudulently Acquiring or Improperly Using a United States Passport." The Commission files these cases as Immigration offenses. Each person is counted under one primary guideline, the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
No court-martial offense is paired with §2L2.2 in the approved crosswalk, so nothing here is set against military results.
Longer Period and Limits
For fiscal years 2016 to 2025 taken together, the Commission recorded 6,602 people under this guideline, and 87% went to prison. The overall median prison term was 3.9 months, with 98% pleading guilty and 76% inside the range. The table gives each year.
Only convicted, sentenced people are in these files. Acquittals, dismissals, and the facts of individual cases are not.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 769 | 4 months | 98% |
| 2017 | 691 | 4.4 months | 98% |
| 2018 | 935 | 4 months | 98% |
| 2019 | 962 | 3.5 months | 99% |
| 2020 | 642 | 3.4 months | 98% |
| 2021 | 582 | 3.5 months | more than 99% |
| 2022 | 661 | 3.3 months | 98% |
| 2023 | 437 | 4.2 months | 97% |
| 2024 | 394 | 4.2 months | 98% |
| 2025 | 529 | 3.3 months | 99% |
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2L2.2 (935), 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)
- §2L2.2 Fraudulently Acquiring Documents Relating to Naturalization, Citizenship, or Legal Resident Status for Own Use: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2L2.2 Fraudulently Acquiring Documents Relating to Naturalization, Citizenship, or Legal Resident Status for Own Use: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2L2.2 Fraudulently Acquiring Documents Relating to Naturalization, Citizenship, or Legal Resident Status for Own Use: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019 (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.