While routine immigration violations are generally a civil offense, there is a category of federal prosecutions - for "illegal reentry" - that are explicitly criminal charges. The US Sentencing Commission prepared this fact sheet (pdf) summarizing data regarding prosecution of illegal reentry, the main criminal charge filed against repeat offenders. Texas' Western (3,664) and Southern (3,387) Districts had the second and third most cases among all US Attorney divisions behind Arizona (3,873) in 2012. The fourth ranked District, New Mexico, prosecuted fewer than 2,000 cases. Overall, the charges do not appear to be targeted at serious criminal offenders. "Fewer illegal reentry offenders were also assigned to the highest Criminal History Category (from 9.4% in fiscal year 2008 to 5.4% in fiscal year 2012)."Via the US Sentencing Commission and Doug Berman.
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