Thread: Immigration prosecutions rising

Immigration prosecutions rising
Half of caseload made up of offenses related to illegal crossings
Jun. 18, 2008 12:00 AM
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has sharply ratcheted up prosecutions of illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the past year, with increases so dramatic that immigration offenses now account for as much as half of the nation's federal criminal caseload.

In the widening crackdown, administration officials prosecuted 9,350 illegal immigrants on federal criminal charges in March, a 73 percent increase over prosecutions last year and an all-time high, according to statistics released Tuesday. Convicted people have received jail sentences averaging about one month.

The prosecutions are among the most visible steps in a larger effort that includes work-site raids, increased border patrols and the use of technology and fences. Often controversial, the patchwork of measures represents the administration's response to failed congressional attempts last summer to overhaul federal laws.

Administration officials and conservative groups have lauded the surge in prosecutions. But critics say data shows illegal immigrants are still trying to enter the country. And some lawyers contend that the push to criminalize illegal immigrants is overwhelming a federal court system with limited resources and higher priorities.

Even so, administration officials announced this month that they would be funneling more resources toward the effort, called Operation Streamline.

"The results of this criminal prosecution initiative have been striking," said U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Chertoff's agency and the U.S. Justice Department jointly run Operation Streamline, recently announcing a plan to assign 64 prosecutors and 35 staff members to prosecutions along the Southwest border. "Operation Streamline" began as a pilot around Del Rio, Texas, in 2005, spreading to other areas. Under the program, officers and prosecutors practice "zero tolerance" and jail times can range from two weeks to six months.

"The reason this works is because these illegal migrants come to realize that violating the law will not simply send them back to try over again, but will require them to actually serve some short period of time in a jail or prison setting, and will brand them as having been violators of the law," Chertoff said. "That has a very significant deterrent impact."

The statistical analysis released Tuesday was compiled by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, considered an authoritative source for such figures, which called the increase "highly unusual."

Operation Streamline's larger aim is to give the administration another tool to use in its crackdown on illegal immigration, said Susan B. Long, a TRAC co-director and Syracuse University professor.

"This is an effort to use the federal criminal-justice system in immigration enforcement," Long said. "What it means is that immigration cases are dominating the federal court system these days. The volume of cases is really huge. This is a big deal."

Of 16,298 federal criminal prosecutions recorded nationwide in March, immigration accounted for more than half, Long said. The next highest number of prosecutions were for drug offenses at 2,674, followed by 702 prosecutions for white-collar crime.

Clearinghouse researchers found that all but 142 of the 9,350 new federal immigration prosecutions in March occurred in certain areas along the border with Mexico. Texas was most active, followed by southern California.

California is not formally a part of Operation Streamline. But prosecutions of people who smuggle illegal immigrants into the country along the California border have increased sharply in the past five years, nearly doubling to 118 cases in March.

The deluge of Operation Streamline prosecutions is overwhelming some lawyers involved in the process. Heather Williams, a federal public defender in Tucson, said the operation had a crushing effect when begun this year on a limited basis.


About 20 years too late


http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... n0618.html

I see what is coming...........It is way too expensive to prosecute illegal aliens because there are just too many of them.
Maybe if our border were secured by armed military, the invasion would stop.

Related thread:

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-119816.html

The statistical analysis released Tuesday was compiled by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, considered an authoritative source for such figures, which called the increase "highly unusual."

Not when it's been ignored for decades.