§2L2.2 Fraudulently Acquiring Documents Relating to Naturalization, Citizenship, or Legal Resident Status for Own Use: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019
In fiscal year 2019, 962 people were sentenced under §2L2.2. The median prison term was 3.5 months, and supervised release was ordered for 487 people (51%). 99% pleaded guilty, and 73% were sentenced within the guideline range.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2019, 962 people were sentenced under §2L2.2. The median prison term was 3.5 months, and supervised release was ordered for 487 people (51%). 99% pleaded guilty, and 73% were sentenced within the guideline range.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 962 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019. 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 Happened After Prison in Fiscal Year 2019?
Supervised release is a period of court supervision that follows a prison term. 487 of the 962 people (51%) were ordered to serve it, and the median term was 24 months.
Money penalties were uncommon. 23 people (2%) were fined, and restitution was ordered for 14 (1%). Restitution is payment to compensate a victim.
Prison Terms Were Short
847 people (88%) went to prison, and 102 (11%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. The median prison term was 3.5 months.
A quarter of those sent to prison received 6 months or more, and a quarter received 1.6 months or less. The Commission reports the sentence imposed, not the time served. For everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019, the median prison term was 24 months in the all-guidelines group of 76,538 people, which includes every offense type.
Almost Everyone Pleaded Guilty
949 people (99%) pleaded guilty, and 13 were convicted after a trial. Federal court overall had 98% guilty pleas that year.
The median prison term was 3.4 months following a guilty plea and 6 months following a trial. Only 13 people were convicted at trial and sent to prison, so the trial median is a small-group figure. 42% of guilty pleas had a written plea agreement, and 58% did not.
Sentences and the Guideline Range
Range information was recorded for 961 people. 73% (697) were sentenced within the range. 18% (172) were below it without a request from the government, and 8% (80) were below it at the government's request. 1% (12) were above it.
In federal court as a whole, 51% of sentences were within the range. A sentence inside the range was more common here. 36 of the 962 people (4%) had a mandatory minimum prison term.
The Guideline in Plain Terms
The Guidelines Manual's 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 offense type assigned by the U.S. Sentencing Commission is Immigration. Fiscal year 2019 ran from October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019.
80% of the people fell in criminal history category I, the lowest, and less than 1% in category VI, the highest. Military court records have no field for criminal history. The crosswalk used for this site pairs the guideline with no court-martial offense, so this post is federal only.
Fiscal Year 2019 Next to the Other Years
Fiscal year 2018 had 935 people under §2L2.2, a median prison term of 4 months, and 71% within the range. Fiscal year 2020 had 642 people, a median of 3.4 months, and 74% within the range.
Taking fiscal years 2016 to 2025 together, 6,602 people were sentenced under this guideline. 87% went to prison, and the median prison term was 3.9 months. 98% pleaded guilty and 76% were within the range. The table lists each year. The data cannot explain year-to-year changes, and it leaves out acquittals, dismissals, and the facts of any case.
| 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 2019 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2L2.2 (962), 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 2018 (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 2020 (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.