Feds add 7 prosecutors to combat border crime
By TIM KORTE Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 08/12/2008 02:55:33 PM MDT


LAS CRUCES, N.M.—Federal authorities are getting help in fighting immigration and drug crimes along New Mexico's 180-mile international border with Mexico. Seven new prosecutors are expected to be in place by November.
Four of the assistant U.S. attorney positions are going to the Las Cruces field office, where immigration caseloads have increased dramatically in recent years because the Border Patrol has clamped down on illegal entries.

The other three prosecutors will work in Albuquerque.

"This is very good news for us. Often, when a border district gets a lot of new lawyers, most are siphoned off to the interior or main office," said Gregg Wormuth, branch chief for the U.S. attorney's office.

"Then the branch office, which is dealing with the border issues, doesn't get much help. But we recently got a bunch of border slots and it's good that four of them will be working here in Las Cruces."

U.S. Attorney Greg Fouratt of Albuquerque said the New Mexico offices handled 1,358 new immigration prosecutions this year, with 90 percent of the increase in the Las Cruces office. He estimated it's a 300 percent increase over this time a year ago.

Wormuth estimated 85 percent of cases coming

through his office involve immigration, drugs or both. Most of the work involves defendants who illegally cross into the United States after previously being deported.
Until now, such cases weren't always prosecuted. Sometimes, illegal border jumpers went straight to deportation. There also were "catch-and-release" programs under which people captured in the United States were offered the chance to be voluntarily returned to their home country.

Wormuth said his office now pursues charges against "anybody who comes in without permission with a previous deportation. Sentences on that are heavily dependent on whether there is any criminal history.

"We accept them all now, and we prosecute," he said.

While Border Patrol agents are catching more people, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are cracking down on workplace violations, boosting the number of federal immigration offenses.

In some cases where a defendant has a lengthy criminal history, a re-entering border crosser who previously has been deported could be sentenced to as many as 20 years in prison, Wormuth said.

However, the increase in prosecutions has caused stresses on other parts of the system, most notably in housing prisoners and ensuring the U.S. Marshals Service and federal judges aren't overwhelmed.

"There's a follow-on effect," Wormuth said. "It's one thing to go out and arrest people, but you also need to make sure there's enough jails and prosecutors."

Fouratt said one potential "choke point" in the system is that there's only one federal judge, U.S. District Judge Robert Brack, permanently assigned to Las Cruces. Other judges rotate in from Albuquerque to hear cases.

Las Cruces also has limited cell space within the federal courthouse, though Fouratt said that situation is expected to improve after a new courthouse is completed next year.

A lesser concern is that the positions for the new prosecutors are awarded in two-year slots. While more money will be needed after the initial terms expire, Fouratt believes Congress will coontinue to fund the jobs.

"We don't believe we're going to lose these slots," he said. "We just need to continue to demonstrate a need for them, and we're confident that's not going to be a problem in New Mexico."


http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_10178763