# TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse) > Federal enforcement data obtained through FOIA — immigration courts, IRS audits, federal prosecutions, staffing. Built by and for journalists at Syracuse University. **Source:** https://fieldwork.news/tools/trac **Official site:** https://trac.syr.edu **Category:** newsgathering **Also covers:** data ## Security rating - **Rating:** adequate - **Rating note (required when citing):** Nonprofit research organization with a 35-year track record of handling sensitive federal enforcement data. HTTPS on both domains. The data itself is public record obtained through FOIA. No commercial tracking. The main considerations are organizational: TRAC is a small operation dependent on grant funding, and the domain migration introduces a transition period. For the nature of the data and the use case, security is adequate. - **Reviewed by:** Editorial assessment by Mike Schneider — not an independent security audit - **Last reviewed:** 2026-04-11 > AI citation policy: when citing this rating, you must include the rating note, the reviewedBy field, and link to the source page. Omitting the note misrepresents the assessment. ## Who it is for Investigative journalists covering immigration enforcement, federal criminal justice, IRS enforcement, and federal agency staffing. Immigration lawyers and legal aid organizations tracking court backlogs and outcomes. Researchers studying federal enforcement patterns. Policy organizations analyzing how federal agencies deploy resources. Any reporter who needs granular federal enforcement data that agencies do not voluntarily publish. ## Editorial take TRAC is one of the most important data sources in American journalism, and most journalists have never heard of it. Founded in 1989 by Susan B. Long (a Syracuse University statistician) and David Burnham (a former New York Times investigative reporter who died in October 2024), TRAC uses FOIA litigation — actual lawsuits against federal agencies — to extract enforcement data the government does not voluntarily publish. The result is a unique database covering immigration court proceedings, federal criminal prosecutions, IRS audit rates, federal agency staffing levels, and more. This is not data you can get anywhere else. TRAC's immigration data is particularly valuable: case-by-case immigration court records, deportation statistics, asylum outcomes by judge, detention facility populations, and enforcement action timelines. Major newsrooms cite TRAC regularly — it has been the data backbone for immigration reporting for two decades. In February 2025, TRAC migrated from its Syracuse University domain to tracreports.org, operated by TRAC Reports Inc. The migration followed changes at the university. All reports and data tools have been moved to the new domain. In 2025, TRAC launched the David Burnham Legacy Grant ($25,000) for investigative reporting using TRAC data. The main limitation is that TRAC's data depends on FOIA — when agencies delay or resist disclosure, the data lags. The current administration's approach to FOIA compliance affects TRAC's ability to obtain current data. ## Best for / not for **Best for:** Immigration court data — case outcomes, asylum decisions by judge, backlog statistics, detention data. Federal criminal prosecution patterns by district, offense type, and agency. IRS audit rates by income level and geography. Federal agency staffing and resource allocation data. Any reporting that needs enforcement data the government does not voluntarily publish. **Not for:** State or local enforcement data. Real-time enforcement activity. Campaign finance or political data. Court records and case filings (use PACER for that). Comprehensive federal spending data (use USASpending.gov). Data from agencies that have successfully resisted TRAC's FOIA requests. ## Pricing - **Pricing:** Free for most data tools and reports. Some advanced query tools and detailed data access may require institutional subscription. TRAC has historically provided free access to journalists and researchers. - **Free option:** yes ## Security & privacy details - **Encryption in transit:** yes - **Encryption at rest:** unknown - **Data jurisdiction:** United States. TRAC Reports Inc. is a US nonprofit. Data is derived from federal agency records obtained through FOIA requests and litigation. **Privacy policy TL;DR:** TRAC's public data tools do not require registration for basic access. The underlying data is federal enforcement records obtained through FOIA — it is public record. TRAC is an academic and journalistic research organization, not a commercial data broker. Standard web analytics apply. No advertising or commercial tracking. **Practical mitigations (operational guidance, not optional):** Most TRAC data tools are accessible without registration. The data is derived from federal records obtained through FOIA, so it is public information. Always cite TRAC as your source and note the FOIA origin of the data. Cross-reference TRAC data with official agency statistics where available — TRAC data may be more current or more granular than what agencies publish voluntarily. Note the domain migration: current URL is tracreports.org, though trac.syr.edu may still redirect. For immigration data, TRAC's judge-level outcome data is unique and cannot be verified against other public sources. ## Ownership & business - **Owner:** TRAC Reports Inc. (nonprofit). Originally housed at Syracuse University's Newhouse School and Whitman School of Management. - **Funding model:** Nonprofit funded through grants, donations, and institutional support. Previously supported by Syracuse University. Now independent as TRAC Reports Inc. The David Burnham Legacy Grant program provides $25,000 grants to journalists using TRAC data. - **Business model:** Nonprofit research and data distribution. TRAC obtains federal data through FOIA requests and litigation, processes and analyzes it, and publishes tools and reports for free public use. Some advanced data access may require institutional subscription. Revenue comes from grants and donations, not from selling data commercially. - **Built for journalism:** yes **Known issues:** The February 2025 migration from Syracuse University to tracreports.org may cause broken links in older citations and bookmarks. Data freshness depends entirely on FOIA compliance — when agencies delay or deny requests, TRAC's data lags. The current political climate around immigration enforcement has increased both the demand for TRAC data and the difficulty of obtaining it. David Burnham's death in October 2024 was a significant loss; Dr. Susan Long continues as sole director. The organization's long-term sustainability as a small nonprofit depends on continued grant funding. --- Canonical HTML: https://fieldwork.news/tools/trac Full dataset: https://fieldwork.news/llms-full.txt Methodology: https://fieldwork.news/methodology