The latest Internal Revenue Service (IRS) statistics covering federal income tax audits through February of 2022 reveals that the agency is continuing to target audits on the poorest wage earners. So far it has completed 132,922 audits of these low-income wage earners with less than $25,000 in total gross receipts. This is up from 105,978 […]
TRAC Syracuse University
Posted inUS
IRS civil tax lawsuits are only half the number of a decade ago
The number of civil tax lawsuits filed in federal court remains steady, but are only half the number of a decade ago according to data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a research institute at Syracuse University. This decline is likely due to severe funding and staffing cuts imposed on the Internal Revenue […]
Posted inUS
Environmental Prosecutions from Investigations by EPA and Interior Department Continue to Decline
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during the first ten months of FY 2021 the government reported 182 new environment prosecutions. If this activity continues at the same pace, the annual total of prosecutions will be down 7.6 percent over the past fiscal year and down 44.5 percent from just five […]
Posted inUncategorized
Domestic Terrorism Cases on the Rise in February Following the January 6 Breach of the Capitol Building
April 14, 2021 – In February 2021, according to federal internal case-by-case records on prosecutions obtained after successful court litigation by TRAC, there were 57 prosecutions of domestic terrorism filed in the federal district courts. The majority of these prosecutions—54—were filed in the District of Columbia following the storming of the Capitol on January 6. […]
Posted inUS
Millionaires and Corporate Giants Escape IRS Audits Again in FY 2020
March 18, 2021 – At a time when Americans face growing economic inequality and financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is letting billions of dollars in tax revenue slip through its fingers because budget and staffing cuts have left the agency incapable of fairly and effectively auditing the 637,212 […]
Posted inUS
Many More Voting Rights Lawsuits Filed in 2020 Than in 2016
September 21, 2020 – With the lead up to the November elections, voting rights litigation in the federal courts has been climbing. During August 2020, a total of 31 new lawsuits were filed. Thus far during FY 2020, a period of eleven months, there have been a total of 202 new voting rights lawsuits. Records […]
Posted inUS
Police Officers Rarely Charged for Excessive Use of Force in Federal Court
June 17, 2020 – Despite growing popular unrest and media attention in recent years over excessive use of force by police officers, the latest available case-by-case data show that federal prosecutors rarely bring relevant criminal charges known as “deprivation of rights under the color of law” (18 U.S.C. 242) against law enforcement. In the first […]
Posted inUS
Is Your Income Higher Now Than 10 Years Ago? It Depends On Where You Live
April 15, 2020 – Where you reside has had a major impact on the relative change in prosperity families experience as reflected in the income reported on federal 1040 income tax returns. Using the latest figures reported by the Internal Revenue Service, and comparing these to returns filed a decade earlier, some counties saw a […]
Posted inUS
Department of Justice Official Uses Sunshine Week Event to Spread Misinformation about FOIA Processing
March 17, 2020 – At a recent Sunshine Week event, a Department of Justice spokesperson claimed that FOIA applicants are now quicker to litigate, then blamed overly-litigious requesters for straining the workloads of FOIA professionals and bogging down ordinary citizens’ FOIA requests. TRAC finds the underlying claim to be unsubstantiated and counterfactual. TRAC’s recent empirical […]
Posted inUS
Civil Immigration Litigation in October 2019 Ties All-Time High
December 2, 2019 – The latest available data from the federal courts show that during October 2019 the government reported 367 new civil immigration lawsuits were filed. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University covering monthly filings since October 2007, this number ties the previous all-time […]
Posted inUS
Growth in ICE Detention Fueled by Immigrants with No Criminal Conviction
November 27, 2019 – According to case-by-case data recently obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, the growth in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the past four years has been fueled by a steady increase in the number of detainees with no criminal history. On the […]
Posted inUS
Crushing Immigration Judge Caseloads and Lengthening Hearing Wait Times
Oct. 25, 2019 – The current policies of the Trump Administration have been unsuccessful in stemming the rise in the Immigration Court’s backlog. Overcrowded dockets create lengthening wait times for hearings. At some locations, immigrants with pending cases now wait on average 1,450 days or more – over four years! – before their hearing is […]
Posted inUS
Immigration Court’s Active Backlog Surpasses One Million
Sept. 18, 2019 – The Immigration Court’s active backlog of cases just passed the million case mark. The latest case-by-case court records through the end of August 2019 show the court’s active case backlog was 1,007,155. If the additional 322,535 cases which the court says are pending but have not been placed on the active […]
Posted inUS
ICE Fails to Target Serious Criminals in Immigration Court Filings
July 19, 2019 – Despite the administration’s rhetoric of deporting “criminals” from this country, the latest data from the Immigration Courts through June 2019 shows only 2.8 percent of recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) filings based deportability claims on any alleged criminal activity. This is way down from the emphasis on deporting criminals that […]
Posted inUS
Prosecution of Sex Trafficking of Children is Down Nationwide
July 16, 2019 – Prosecutions for sex trafficking of children under a law used against financier Jeffrey Epstein last week are down 26.7 percent over the past fiscal year, according to the latest available data from the Justice Department. This is the second year in a row that prosecutions for sex trafficking of children under […]
Posted inUS
Burgeoning Workloads for Immigration Judges
May 23, 2019 – The hiring pace for new judges continues to be insufficient to keep up with the Immigration Court’s workload. As a result, the court’s backlog continues to climb – up 65 percent since President Trump assumed office. A total of only 424 judges face a backlog of 892,517 cases on the courts’ […]
Posted inUS
White Collar Prosecutions Hit All-Time Low in January 2019
March 13, 2019 – The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during January 2019 the government reported 337 new white collar crime prosecutions – an historic low. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, this number is down 20.3 percent over the previous […]
Posted inEnviro
Federal Prosecution of Environmental Crimes Continues to Drop
October 26, 2018 – The latest available data from the Justice Department shows that during the 12 months of fiscal year 2018, ending in September, the government reported prosecuting 109 new environmental crimes. Of these 29 defendants were businesses. The rest were individuals. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse […]
Posted inRegional
Take Part in Truckee River Day
Truckee, Calif. August 28, 2018 – Calling on all nature-lovers to join us for Truckee River Day and River Fair on Sunday, October 14th! Put on some sturdy boots, dig out your work gloves, and grab some friends. Together we will work to restore the Truckee River, along with its creeks and meadows. For over […]
Posted inUS
FOIA Backlog Skyrockets at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to Over 46,000 Unanswered Requests
May 8, 2017 – The backlog of unprocessed FOIA requests to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) continues to climb. In just a two-year period, the backlog of unanswered FOIA requests has tripled, climbing from 17,998 at the end of December 2014 to 46,550 at the end of December 2016. This means that countless […]