DOJ Chops Prosecutions of Illegals in Arizona

by Tony Lee 9 Sep 2014, 11:17 AM PDT
breitbart

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Republican Arizona lawmakers are demanding answers from Attorney General Eric Holder about whether he ordered U.S. attorneys in southern Arizona to stop prosecuting illegal immigrants who are first-time offenders in addition to repeat offenders who do not have criminal histories.

After Yuma County Sheriff Paul Leon Wilmot informed lawmakers that the Department of Justice will no longer prosecute nearly every illegal immigrant who is detained in southern Arizona, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) wrote Holder at the end of August about the "major shift in practice" that compromises the safety of U.S. citizens and national security and undermines immigration law "by executive fiat."

On Monday, Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, who were both members of the Gang of Eight that pushed the Senate's comprehensive amnesty bill, also told Holder that it seems like this would be "an inopportune time to potentially be removing tools from the border security toolbox," since migrants from Central America are still flooding across the border.

The Senators noted that the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office "recently related that they had been informed that the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona will cease prosecuting those apprehended crossing the border illegally for the first time" and "suggested that only those undocumented aliens with adverse immigration histories or criminal convictions, as well as those apprehended while involved with criminal activity or presenting a danger to the public, will be prosecuted."

In a letter to Gosar, Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot said the "disturbing" new guidance was "of great concern, because it undermines the mission of local law enforcement agencies throughout Yuma County for 100% prosecution of those entering the United States illegally in order to curb reentries" and forces the county to adopt "practices that are not working in other sectors."

"From an outside perspective, this new guidance gives a strong impression that its sole purpose is to direct the UDA [undocumented aliens] traffic and their criminal activity back to Yuma County," Wilmot wrote. "This practice undermines everything that we have worked hard to achieve over the years for the citizens of Yuma County."

Wilmot said that, "at one time, Yuma County had the worst record in the United States for illegal entries by UDAs," and the "community suffered numerous ancillary crimes." He said since the implementation of Operation Streamline in December 2006, Yuma County "has attained a reputation of 'zero tolerance' enforcement for UDAs and their criminal activities."

Citing "an interview of a defendant from a recent smuggling case," Wilmot said the subject "told investigators that since he has been in jail, he has talked with several other inmates," and "he informed the investigators that the inmates were talking about how hard we (Yuma Sector) have been coming down on alien smuggling in our area."

"He stated that they and their partners are moving to other areas due to our hard stance on smuggling and the fact that if you are caught in Yuma, you will go to jail," Wilmot wrote.

Flake and McCain noted that Operation Streamline--and its "zero tolerance" approach--has made Yuma County's border with Mexico "one of the most secure in the nation," after it was one of the most porous.

"As you are aware, the Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector has long grappled with the crossing of undocumented aliens and has seen illegal traffic decline precipitously from the early 2000s to the present," the Senators wrote Holder. "The recent conditions in the Yuma Sector represent one of the few instances approaching a success with respect to border security."

They asked Holder whether the guidance about first-time offenders has actually been issued and whether the current border crisis was considered in revisions to prosecutorial guidance.

"In considering revisions to prosecutorial guidance in southern Arizona, were current border security impacts considered as well as impacts to future illegal traffic levels and issues faced border-wide?" they asked.

Gosar said that this "dereliction will completely undermine the United States’ ‘zero tolerance’ policy established through Operation Streamline and flies in the face of years of work conducted by federal, state, and local law enforcement to secure our communities and our borders."

"The Administration acts to circumvent the law, Congress makes legitimate Congressional inquiries, and… silence. Nothing. Zilch," he added. "I am sick and tired of this Administration—which promised to be the most transparent in history—constantly seeking to tilt the scales on our age-old systems of checks and balances. I will not stand for it, and I will continue to seek the answers the people deserve.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...in-Southern-AZ

on Breitbart TV 12 Sep 2014, 8:27 AM PDT

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) reported that the Justice Department and president told one of his sheriffs the federal government was ending expeditious processing of first-time illegal immigrants and refusing to prosecute many first-time illegal aliens on Friday’s broadcast of the “The Laura Ingraham Show."

Gosar said that under the expeditious processing plan, Operation Streamline, “usually those that were picked up together were processed together they’re quickly given opportunities to say ‘listen, the plea bargain is that you have to go home immediately’ and they plea to lesser charges.” And that “we were made aware that Eric Holder and the president had decided to end this process of enforcement.”

A letter written to Gosar by Yuma Co., AZ Sheriff Leon Wilmot read on the show stated that Wilmot was informed the federal government would be “no longer be prosecuting first-time undocumented aliens (UDAs) under Section 1325. Furthermore, I was advised that only undocumented aliens with an adverse immigration history, excluding voluntary returns and voluntary departures, [or a criminal history] ... would be prosecuted.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-T...-Time-Illegals

October 02, 2012 - Eric Holder - New evidence has been discovered that reveals Holder participated in an ‘armed’ takeover of a former Columbia University ROTC office. Holder is a radical. He and his former law firm has defended terrorists; his primary objective is to be a liberal activist, while punishing those who are against him. The DOJ has been polluted under his tenure. But it doesn't stop there.
The Daily Caller dug up some frightening information about Holder’s past as a black radical in college. It’s clear that he had a similar experience to Barack Obama, growing up with disdain for America.

http://phillhillusa.wordpress.com/20...rotc-building/



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Understand Why Now????

http://www.msnbc.com/sites/msnbc/fil...?itok=GiOLtOub

A U.S. Border Patrol agent looks into Mexico from the U.S.-Mexico border on February 26, 2013 near Sonoita, Arizona.
Photo by John Moore/Getty


Feds easing back on some Operation Streamline prosecutions

09/24/14 02:32 PM
By Amanda Sakuma

Federal prosecutors are easing back on their “zero-tolerance” immigration crackdown in southern Arizona where nearly all undocumented immigrants caught trying to enter the U.S. illegally have faced mass criminal convictions that carry stiff penalties.

Prosecutors in Yuma, Ariz., may no longer target immigrants who are caught crossing the U.S. border illegally for the first time to become processed through a controversial program known as Operation Streamline, local law enforcement officials said.

Instead, the feds are to prioritize prosecuting immigrants with criminal rap sheets and prior deportations on their record to enter the fast-tracked proceedings, where as many as 70 people are brought before sentencing hearings at once.

The slight policy shift in Yuma mirrors changes that other regions have already implemented as the backlogs in federal immigration courts continue to spiral out of control. While the Obama administration has made rooting out immigrants with criminal records a prime focus behind enforcement efforts and the number of deportations across the country have actually gone down, these expedited Operation Streamline hearings have only surged in criminal proceedings critics say is “assembly-line justice” that lacks due process.

In a letter to Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot expressed outrage that the policy shift would cripple the region’s tough reputation for criminalizing all immigrants who attempt to enter the U.S. illegally.

“This new guidance is of great concern because it undermines the mission of local law enforcement agencies throughout Yuma County for 100% prosecution of those entering the United States illegally in order to curb reentries,” Wilmot wrote last month.

Operation Streamline quickly grew in the borderlands as a program designed to give immigrants stiff consequences for attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally. Rather than immediately turn people away at the border or process their case through civil immigration courts, Operation Streamline adds an extra layer of criminal convictions for the illegal entries. Most of the immigrants caught plead guilty and are handing sentences ranging from 30 days to six months of jail time.

Yuma County became just the second Border Patrol sector in the U.S. to adopt the Operation Streamline program in 2006. At the time, the 126-mile stretch along the U.S. border touching California was one of the busiest corridors of illegal border crossings in the country.

However since 2005, apprehensions along the Yuma sector plummeted by 95%, down to just over 6,000 in the last fiscal year.

Sens. McCain and Flake responded to the sheriff’s letter by sending one of their own to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder earlier this month. Pointing to the dramatic decrease in border-crossers in Yuma, the senators said the numbers are proof that Operation Streamline has been successful in deterring immigrants from wanting to enter the U.S.

“The recent conditions in the Yuma Sector represent one of the few instances approaching a success with respect to border security,” the senators wrote in their letter to the attorney general, adding that the surge in unaccompanied minors at the border presents an “inopportune time to potentially be removing tools from the border security toolbox.”

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/feds-easi...e-prosecutions