http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/l ... 650925.htm

Posted on Sun, Oct. 01, 2006

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

More immigration cases edge northward to Kansas

BY RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle

For the past several years, two Wichita judges have left town to sit in a federal courthouse in Las Cruces, N.M., that doesn't have enough judges to hear all of its cases.

J. Thomas Marten and Monti Belot are helping answer America's biggest legal challenge: illegal immigration.

Two years ago, immigration surpassed drugs and weapons charges as the most prosecuted crimes by the U.S. government.

While the crunch is most noticeable in the border courts, such as Las Cruces, the judges don't leave the work behind when they return to Wichita. They rarely saw these kinds of cases a decade ago, but now estimate that immigration issues take up nearly half their criminal dockets.

Brent Anderson, who prosecutes immigration cases in Kansas, has also witnessed the flood of cases along the Rio Grande, while helping out at the busy U.S. attorney's office in El Paso, Texas.

"At the border you have to see it to believe it, and if you don't see it you don't believe it," Anderson said. "But it's not just at the border anymore. It's now in the interior of the United States, and it's increasing."

Immigration cases have nearly doubled in Kansas the past three years, and continue climbing, Anderson said.

Migrant fugitives

Chicago lawyer Taher Kameli said immigration cases probably will continue to increase in Kansas and states to the south.

A graduate of Washburn Law School, Kameli formerly worked for the Shawnee County district attorney's office in Topeka. Now, he travels across the country practicing what he calls immigration criminal defense.

Kameli, in Wichita this past week to represent a client at sentencing, said clients tell him they're willing to risk prison for the rewards America offers -- better jobs and a better life.

Some say life in a county jail or federal prison in the United States is better than what they find on the streets of Mexico.

"And it's costing us, as taxpayers, $23,000 a year" to house federal prisoners, Kameli said.

Kansas law enforcement is already feeling strained.

Anderson, the federal prosecutor, estimates half of all criminal cases in Wichita's federal courthouse include defendants who are illegal immigrants. They're accused of illegally working in the U.S., or transporting illegal immigrants or coming back after being deported. They also face drug and weapons charges.

"That tells you there's something going on in our society," Anderson said. "And that is, law enforcement is spending half of its time investigating foreign nationals illegally in the United States. That means those resources aren't available for other things."

Anderson stays connected with local and state law enforcement efforts, too. He says similar defendants face felony and misdemeanor violations at the Sedgwick County Courthouse and City Hall.

"So the system is having to absorb these cases that do not involve United States citizens, and in fact involve people who aren't supposed to be here," Anderson said. "Is it crushing the system? It doesn't appear to be here. But you go to El Paso, as I have done, or Las Cruces, and you see that it is. And you have to guess it's headed our way."

Justice near the border

When judges Marten and Belot head southwest, they face what some local judges and lawyers call "the rocket docket."

"The last time I went there, on my first day, we picked five juries," Marten said. "We started at 9 o'clock in the morning and went until 8 that night. We had four trials over the next seven days, and we had a jury left for the next judge coming in."

The lawyers rarely left the courtroom.

"... And I ask you to find the defendant guilty," a prosecutor would say in closing arguments.

The assistant U.S. attorney would return to the table and watch the jury file out. Then another panel would walk in immediately to take their place.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury...," the prosecutor would say in opening statements for the next trial.

U.S. marshals routinely escort in 40 to 80 defendants, some being kept in local jails hundreds of miles away.

Nationwide, a federal judge can expect to handle 87 felony cases at one time.

In New Mexico, a single judge's average caseload is 405 -- the busiest in the nation, according to federal court statistics.

"Federal courts along the southwest border are in a crisis mode," reads a June report in The Third Branch, a newsletter for the U.S. courts.

Most of those arrested in New Mexico have already been returned to the border dozens of times, some as many as 60, before being charged with entering the country illegally, according to the newsletter.

Nine of 10 plead guilty, are sentenced to the time they've served in county jails waiting for their cases, and are deported, Marten and Belot said.

With such a crunch on the courts, efficiency is crucial. Pre-sentence reports are prepared well in advance and prosecutors and defense lawyers must work together to arrive at a fair plea deal for the defendants.

"I feel, and I think everybody down there feels, justice is done," Belot said. "Even though the volume is greater, and people are moved through the system faster, every attempt is being made to treat the people reasonably."

Judges quickly distinguish between those charged with simply trying to sneak into the country and the so-called "backpackers" who are smuggling drugs, weapons and -- sometimes -- humans.

"Most of the people are just coming here looking for a job and a better life," Marten said. "They are not bad or evil people. They just want a better life."

A deterrent?

Illegal re-entry after deportation is one of the most prolific crimes charged in Kansas. It's a felony carrying prison sentences ranging from a few months to several years.

Some, frankly, don't care, Kameli said.

"I have clients who say 'if I'm sitting in jail, at least my family can come and visit me every weekend, and they can't visit me in Mexico,' " Kameli said. "I advise them, jail is not good. But they look at it differently."

Judge Belot remembered sentencing a man to prison several times, because he kept returning after being deported to Mexico.

"How long was it, when you were deported last time, until you came back?" the judge remembered asking the defendant.

The man grinned:

"The next day," he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reach Ron Sylvester at 316-268-6514 or rsylvester@wichitaeagle.com.