Immigration crime, virtually all involving illegal male, Hispanic immigrants, was the top offense in federal courts last year, according to the United States Sentencing Commission.

In its just-released annual report, the commission said that immigration crimes accounted for 34.4% of all sentencing cases, up from 30% last year.

Nearly tied with drug crimes in fiscal 2017, crimes involving immigration expanded the gap in fiscal 2018, said the commission.

Overall, the courts saw 69,425 cases and most involved Hispanics and illegal immigrants.

“In fiscal year 2018, 54.3 percent of all offenders were Hispanic, 21.2 percent were white, 20.6 percent were black, and 3.8 percent were of another race. Non-U.S. citizens accounted for 42.7 percent of all federal offenders,” said the federal commission.

Source: 2018 Annual Report and Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics.

“Immigration cases accounted for the largest single group of offenses in fiscal year 2018, comprising 34.4% of all reported cases. Cases involving drugs, firearms, and fraud were the next most common types of offenses after immigration cases. Together these four types of offenses accounted for 82.9 percent of all cases reported to the commission in fiscal year 2018,” said the 2018 Annual Report and Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics.

The immigration crime numbers from fiscal 2018:



There were 23,883 cases, 34.4% of all sentencings.

Of those, 22,782, or 96.3%, involved Hispanics.

Most, were male, 22,106, 92.7%.

Just 866, or 3.6%, involved those under 21 years old.

21,835, or 91.5% were noncitizens.

94.7% of the immigration cases led to prison sentences.

The commission said that immigration cases include, “trafficking in U.S. passports, trafficking in entry documents, failure to surrender naturalization certificate, fraudulently acquiring U.S. passports, smuggling, transporting, or harboring an unlawful alien, fraudulently acquiring entry documents, and unlawfully entering or remaining in the U.S.”

[Read more: 9th Circuit rules Trump administration can send asylum-seekers back to Mexico while cases decided]