Thread: AZ: Program to prosecute illegal immigrants set to expand

Program to prosecute illegal immigrants set to expand
Sunday, January 13, 2008

TUCSON (AP) -- A program aimed at deterring illegal border crossings by prosecuting a select number of apprehended migrants will be expanded Monday to cover the busiest illicit entry corridor on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Until now, the vast majority of illegal immigrants apprehended in the Border Patrol's Tucson sector have been voluntarily returned to Mexico. Forty migrants will now be prosecuted each weekday under the sector's zero-tolerance program.

"Based on the success in other locations and other prosecutorial initiatives that we have, we know that the impact of time served has a deterrent effect on illegal entrants and on recidivists too," said Robert Boatright, chief deputy patrol agent in the Tucson sector. The sector covers all but a small part of the Arizona-Mexico border.

The Border Patrol initiated the first such program in the area around Del Rio, Texas, in December 2005, this one targeting illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico. The agency added the Yuma, Ariz., area in December 2006 to decrease border violence and moved on to Laredo, Texas, a few months ago.

In November, officials in the Tucson sector said they wanted to mirror the successes of the operations in other sectors, hoping to prosecute 100 illegal immigrants daily.

But the strain that added prosecutions will put on other parts of the justice system will limit the program's startup to 40 cases each weekday. The number is likely to reach 60 eventually. That will only cover a small number of the people caught.

Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector caught some 378,000 illegal immigrants in the past fiscal year, an average of more than 1,000 a day. In contrast, there were fewer than 23,000 apprehensions all year in Del Rio; 38,000 in Yuma, and fewer than 57,000 in Laredo.

Even with only 40 prosecutions a day, expenses will likely add up to millions of dollars a year for housing, transporting, prosecuting and defending those who are charged.

While a higher number of arrests clearly occur daily in the Tucson sector, trying to prosecute many more on a daily basis clearly would overwhelm the system, various federal officials say.

"It's going to have an impact on the court pretty dramatically once it reaches what its full plan is," said Richard Weare, clerk of the U.S. District Court for Arizona. The impact will range from requiring magistrate judges to be available and finding enough qualified private lawyers to help represent the bulk of defendants to sufficient interpreters, added court staff and bringing in more prosecutors.

In addition, the added daily prisoners will clog or possibly overflow the Tucson courthouse's holding facilities, which accommodate only 80 prisoners now.

They will require additional marshals for courtroom and cellblock operations and will rapidly fill vacant beds in federal detention centers in Arizona and other states, fueling added prisoner transportation and housing costs.

"It's going to have a tremendous impact, there's no question about it," said David Gonzales, U.S. marshal for Arizona.

Heather Williams, first assistant federal public defender in Tucson, said her office will provide two trial lawyers daily, each to represent six illegal immigrant defendants.

Attorneys for the other 28 defendants will be appointed from a court-approved private attorney list at a congressionally approved cost of $100 an hour.

The program will cost about $2,600 a day from her office's budget. Court costs for the other defense attorneys will total another $7,200 to $8,000 daily, she said.

If cases are heard 50 weeks a year, defense costs will approach $2.5 million a year.

Those arrested for the first time typically receive sentences ranging from 15 days to six months under the program used in other areas.

Williams doesn't think the program will have a long-term deterrent effect.

In addition, she said, "From the start, the federal public defender has thought that this was ill-advised, that it may be depriving the defendants of effective assistance of counsel, including our finding people who may be citizens and who should not be in the room at all."

Gonzales, the U.S. marshal, said his service will be bringing in people on temporary duty assignment from around the country for administrative and cellblock assistance.

Ray Kondo, assistant chief marshal in Tucson, said three Border Patrol agents will be trained to assist with courtroom security and cellblock operations.

Most federal prisoners processed through the federal court in Tucson are held at a Corrections Corporation of America facility in Florence, which receives about $10 million a month now, Gonzales said. Were there to be an additional hundred prisoners a day, the cost for bed space alone could double, he said.

He said handling 100 new prisoners now would be beyond reach.
http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2008 ... ews_81.txt

I am in favor of prosecuting those who enter the US illegally but think of the money saved in court, lawyer fees, detention costs, etc. if they were prevented from entering in the first place.............BUILD THE FENCE ASAP.

"Evil unchecked grows. Evil tolerated poisons the whole system."
Jawaharlal Nehru

The Border Patrol initiated the first such program in the area around Del Rio, Texas, in December 2005, this one targeting illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico

Why not include illegal aliens from Mexico and let them know that they no longer have a free pass? Make it 7 days a week not just weekdays.