Border cases pose stern test for prosecutors (with audio)
By Josh Brodesky
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.11.2008
Immigration and drug cases fill the federal court calendar in Arizona.
The two sets of cases, most of which never make it to trial, combine to make up about 75 percent of all sentencings in Arizona's U.S. District Court. Immigration cases, in particular, have been on the rise in recent years, accounting for more than half of all sentencings in 2007, according to a United States Sentencing Commission report.
This upward trend is not likely to stop anytime soon as the U.S. Attorney's Office will be adding 21 prosecutors to deal specifically with immigration cases and other border-related crimes. The bulk of those attorneys, 16, will be placed in the Tucson office. The balance will work out of Phoenix.
In her first interview with the Star, U.S. Attorney Diane Humetewa talked Tuesday about her office's continued focus on immigration prosecutions, how there is no longer a quota for the number of immigration cases her office will handle and how her experience as a tribal liaison will shape her work.
Humetewa, a member of the Hopi Indian Tribe who was confirmed to the post in December, formerly served as senior litigation counsel and tribal liaison for the U.S. Attorney's Office. She replaces Paul Charlton, one of eight U.S. attorneys fired nationwide in a Justice Department purge.
Below are excerpts from the interview. For greater clarity, the questions paraphrase those asked during the interview.
Q: Over the last few years there has been an increase in immigration prosecutions; how has that affected your office?
A: "Last fiscal year we were under a charge to increase the number of prosecutions that we were previously handling, and that activity really impacted the staff here in the office, both the prosecutors and the support staff. And as a result of that, we lost a few very good prosecutors because of the numbers of cases we were asked to generate."
Q: Since you are getting more prosecutors, there is still a quota for immigration prosecutions, right?
A: "I think the lessons we learned, in terms of at least this district, is that we recognized at the end of the day it takes human beings, the men and women, to process these cases, and we have to make sure that we are representing the United States in a professional and an ethical manner, so we have to take every case, each individual case, seriously. At the moment, the only mandate that we're under is to get some more bodies on board so they can continue to help us with a caseload that is very, very high; but also to concentrate on those areas that I mentioned before, the violent felonies that go along with this border activity."
Q: Has the focus on immigration kept the U.S. Attorney's Office from prosecuting other crimes not related to immigration or the border?
A: "I have not seen that impact, and the reason for that is, this office has to continue to address the violent felony offenses that occur, because if we don't, there may not be another agency that can. So we have to prioritize to make sure we are going after those individuals who have violent criminal backgrounds who are re-offending."
Q: You spent quite a bit of time as a tribal liaison in this office. How does that experience affect your new job as top prosecutor?
A: "We essentially are the felony prosecutor for these tribal nations, and so, because we have that huge responsibility, and because the activity that we are undertaking oftentimes affects their tribal police departments, it affects their community members, whether they be a defendant or a victim, we need to be sure we are involving them and they understand what our system of justice is. . . .
"This is, for the time being, the system in which they have to operate. Their community members are here, and to ignore it would be a disservice in terms of understanding how did these people get to this place? How did an individual come from your community and is now being prosecuted in this system? How is it that a person gets victimized, and now where are the resources to address their victimization? And if they don't understand that, and they aren't participating in this system, then I fear that the tribes will get further and further behind in terms of resources and services to community members."
Q: What future plans or initiatives do you have for the office?
A: "The priorities have to be, first of all, to make sure that I support the men and women and give them the tools that they need to continue to handle the individual cases that are coming in daily. And I also have an obligation to let the folks at the Department of Justice know what the ground truth is. What the truth is that we face on a daily basis here in this district because if I don't do that, there really isn't anybody else that will."
On Starnet: Listen to U.S. Attorney Diane Humetewa describe how she plans to use the addition of 21 more attorneys to her office to help with immigration and border-crime prosecutions in the online version of this story at azstarnet.com/metro.
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