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  1. #1
    Senior Member mapwife's Avatar
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    Border policy is naive (By Pima Co's head Public Defender

    Published: 12.09.2007

    Border policy is naive
    Opinion by Robert Hooker
    SPECIAL TO THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR

    The attempt by the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector to institute a zero-tolerance initiative for undocumented entrants — dubbed Operation Streamline — is ill-conceived, naive and harmful.
    First, "zero tolerance" is deceptive. Robert Boatright, deputy Border Patrol chief for the Tucson Sector, said in a Nov. 23 Star article that approximately 1,000 entrants are arrested every day in the Tucson Sector. This probably constitutes a fraction of those who actually enter the United States from Mexico.
    Operation Streamline, he said, is designed to prosecute 10 percent of the 1,000 arrested each day. Thus, 90 percent of the few who are caught will be returned to the border and released as in the past — making the program one of 90 percent tolerance.
    These immigrants are risking their lives to come here. This proposed very low risk of short-term incarceration will not be a deterrent.
    This is bait and switch at its best. If the Border Patrol locking up these people for some period of time will act as a deterrent, it has that ability without impacting an already overburdened criminal-justice system. All the Border Patrol needs to do is refer those apprehended for civil deportation proceedings.
    The zero-tolerance initiative will shift the financial, manpower and logistic burden to the U.S. Marshal's Office, the U.S. District Court, the U.S. Attorney, the Federal Public Defender and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
    Misuses judicial system
    For its success, the plan is predicated upon a misunderstanding of, and dependent upon a perversion of, our criminal-justice system, a system vital to the preservation of our form of democracy and constitutional values.
    It was frightening to read in the Nov. 23 Star that the U.S. District Court in Arizona is "committed to assisting the Border Patrol." If it's true that the United States District Court is "committed" to assisting the Border Patrol, that commitment signifies a basic misunderstanding by those whose duty it is to know of the most basic tenets of our Constitution — the separation of powers and independence of the courts.
    The zero-tolerance program may be a proper law-enforcement effort, but it is not a judicial function. It is not a function of the court to "assist" government in its law-enforcement functions. The legal definition of "assist," which judges implement every day, requires an intent to further the objectives of those being assisted.
    The judiciary must remain neutral and not become a partner with, or agent of, law enforcement. Judges who so assist, or who feel it is their duty to do so, abdicate or misunderstand their responsibilities as sworn judicial officers.
    Lawyers can't do their job
    Coupled with this attempt to co-opt the judiciary, efforts are being made to find criminal defense lawyers who will meet with, talk to, plead guilty and get entrants sentenced — all on the same day and en masse.
    If lawyers can be found who are willing to disgrace themselves and their profession, those lawyers must recognize they are not being paid to represent their clients.
    To the contrary, they are being paid not to do their job as professionals, as lawyers, as persons who have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. They are being paid off in order to give the imprimatur of legitimacy to the process, to give lip service to the Sixth Amendment's right to counsel by allowing the proponents of the program to be able to say that lawyers were provided.
    Lawyers cannot in one day, even for a single client, gain enough information and conduct enough investigation to determine whether the person actually entered illegally or has a right to remain in the United States while contesting deportation; nor will lawyers have enough time to explain to all of the defendants a lawyer will be called upon to represent the rights being forfeited or to ensure they understand those rights, or explain the collateral consequences of entering a plea of guilty.
    The inquiry into the myriad circumstances that can legitimize presence in the United States is complex and time-consuming. Trained lawyers are required.
    Experience in Arizona state courts with Proposition 100, the 2006 ballot proposition that prohibits bail for illegal entrants charged with a serious felony, has shown that a small but significant percentage of those initially considered by law enforcement and even by themselves to have entered illegally actually have legitimate claims to be here. We should not perfunctorily throw these people away like refuse simply for expediency.
    Given the unlikelihood that the policy will actually make any difference, and in light of the financial costs and, more important, the perversion of due process, the right to effective representation and the separation of powers, this "zero tolerance" program should be rejected.
    Rather than "Operation Streamline," it is more appropriately "Operation Steam Roller."
    Did you know ...
    Operation Streamline — which mandates jail time for all illegal border crossers — began in December 2005 in the U.S. Border Patrol's Del Rio Sector in Texas. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol, partnered with the U.S. attorney, U.S. marshals, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. magistrate on the project. Operation Streamline is also being used in the Yuma and Laredo sectors. Full implementation in the Tucson Sector has been slowed due to lack of prison space, attorneys and other judicial and law-enforcement limitations.
    The process begins when an agent apprehends and arrests an individual or group of illegal border crossers. After the arrest, they are bused by a private company contracted by the Border Patrol to a processing center. Voluntary deportation for Mexicans has been the standard since the early '70s. With Operation Streamline, federal law allows that anyone arrested can be sent to federal court and charged with a misdemeanor — violation of 8 USC 1325, "entry without inspection."
    Entrants are taken to a U.S. District Courthouse, where they are held until a meeting with a court-appointed attorney. Subsequently, they appear before a U.S. magistrate, who will explain the charges and determine their sentence.
    The entrants are bused or flown to detention centers in Arizona, New Mexico, California or Texas to serve 15 to 180 days, after which they will be deported to their countries of origin with a formal deportation on their record.
    Source: Arizona Daily Star, Oct. 25, 2007, and Nov. 23, 2007
    http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/215244
    Illegal aliens remain exempt from American laws, while they DEMAND American rights...

  2. #2
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    Enforce the interior laws -

    Cut off the jobs, stop the freebies, enforce all laws inside the US.

    Just enforce the laws on the books that every American citizen must obey - and we won't have so much work to do.

    How long does it take to ascertain a person who just walked across the border isn't an illegal? If they are not, they'll have papers or can get records - it doesn't take long.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
    MW
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    nntrixie wrote:

    Enforce the interior laws -

    Cut off the jobs, stop the freebies, enforce all laws inside the US.
    To include building the 854-mile double-layered fence, which is the law!

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts athttps://eepurl.com/cktGTn

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