Thread: Government aims to charge more illegal crossers

Government aims to charge more illegal crossers

'Catch-and-release' is reality for now

By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.31.2009

Eliminating voluntary returns in the Southwest border's busiest sector is still a long way off, despite the U.S. Border Patrol's intentions.

Officials in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector have been trumpeting plans to put an end to the practice, often described as "catch-and-release," by replacing it with special prosecution initiatives that would send illegal immigrants home with a record of formal removal.

Currently, however, they fall well short of that goal because of the volume of illegal immigration through the sector. And, prosecuting more illegal border crossers under the agency's special initiatives will be an arduous task because of limitations beyond the Border Patrol's control.

Even on a weekday, when all of the agency's special programs are running and as many as 225 illegal immigrants are sent home to Mexico via formal removal, the total doesn't cover all the eligible border crossers arrested. Only Mexican citizens without U.S. criminal records are eligible for voluntary returns.

In 2008, agents in the Tucson Sector made an average of 837 apprehensions of Mexicans daily, down from 1,000-plus a day the previous two years. The daily average ranges from about 350 a day in the slowest month of December to 1,400-plus during the peak months of March and April.

The agency's best chance for total elimination may come from July through September when the number of Mexicans denied voluntary return could increase to as many as 490 a day with the voluntary Interior Repatriation Program, a binational initiative run by the U.S. and Mexican governments that offers two free flights a day to Mexico City.

But even that total would fall short of the average apprehensions of Mexicans made during those months last year: 571 a day.

On weekends, the agency falls even further short of the goal because two of the agency's major programs shut down, decreasing the possible maximum by at least 100. In addition, the agency doesn't always reach its allotted maximums in the programs each day, making the actual daily totals less than 225 on some days.

Despite the daunting numbers, the agency remains confident it will reach near 100 percent elimination of voluntary returns, said George Allen, special operations supervisor in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. The agency plans to incrementally expand the programs and is banking on smugglers taking their groups elsewhere as word spreads about programs that carry harsh consequences, he said. If traffic decreases, apprehensions will plummet and it will be easier to eradicate the use of voluntary return, he said.

The agency has already increased its target area from 15 miles to 132 miles, he said. The sector covers 262 miles from Yuma County to New Mexico.

"I'm confident we can achieve it in the next couple of years," said Allen, admitting that 100 percent elimination may never be possible. "We can take a huge step toward that in this next year alone because we have already made some huge strides."

The slow growth of the Tucson Sector's zero-tolerance Operation Streamline initiative — which proved much easier to expand in the Del Rio, Texas, and Yuma Sectors — offers a cautionary tale of the programs' limitations.

In November 2007, months before the agency would launch its version of a zero-tolerance program known as Operation Streamline, a Border Patrol official said the agency would need a minimum of 100 a day for the program to have its desired effect.

But when the program began in January 2008, the daily maximum was set at 40. The other entities involved — U.S. marshals, U.S. Attorney's Office, Federal Public Defenders Office, U.S. District Court — pulled the reins in due to a lack of resources.

Border Patrol headquarters declined to give local officials permission to call it Operation Streamline because the numbers were too low. It was called the Arizona Denial Prosecution Initiative instead. The program dictates jail time for all illegal border crossers caught in a designated zone. Some get 30 days or more in jail, but most receive time served.

During the past fiscal year, the agency prosecuted more than 13,000 illegal immigrants under the program and says the recidivism rate dropped to 21 percent from the traditional rate of as high as 70 percent.

But, the agency never reached its goal of 100 a day, and the program remains stuck at a a daily maximum of 70. Some of the partner agencies could handle the increase, but the U.S. Marshals Service doesn't have room for any more inmates in its crowded cells at the Evo A. DeConcini Courthouse in Tucson, said David Gonzales, U.S. marshal in Arizona.

They are "packed like sardines" in the courthouse, Gonzales said.

"The infrastructure of the Evo DeConcini Courthouse was not designed for that kind of a load," Gonzales said.

Officials with the U.S. marshals and Border Patrol hope to increase the daily maximum to 100 a day in the next two to three months by shifting the processing of illegal immigrants from the federal courthouse to Border Patrol headquarters in Tucson, he said.

They've been mulling that option since last April, but two roadblocks have prevented it from happening, Gonzales said: information technology compatibility issues between the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security and security issues at Border Patrol facilities.

The latter has been handled, but the technological glitches remain unsolved despite continued work, Gonzales said.

Even when that is fixed, the two agencies must get approval from the other agencies involved in Streamline to increase the maximum to 100, he said.

"Obviously, the Border Patrol could go to 100 with no problems, but we have to make sure our partners can handle it," Allen said.

Therein lies the major hurdle to ending voluntary return.
Each of the agency's programs designed to give formal removals instead of voluntary returns is currently limited.

In the agency's lateral repatriation program — in which private buses haul up to 100 illegal immigrants a day to El Centro or San Diego, Calif., in an attempt to break the smuggling cycle — the agency is reluctant to increase the daily total because it doesn't want to burden border communities or other Border Patrol sectors, Allen said. An increase has been considered but nothing is set, he said.

In the agency's quick court program, the immigration judge who orders formal removals for as many as 30 illegal immigrants a day, Monday through Friday, has a full docket and can't handle any more cases, Allen said.

Border Patrol agents also have the authority to administer "expedited removals" to anyone arrested within 100 miles of the border and within 14 days of entry, which sends illegal immigrants home via a formal deportation. But this action can take as long as two hours for an agent and requires a sworn statement, a series of questions and must be reviewed by two other officials, he said.

The agency can't afford to have agents administer more than a few dozen a day because it would leave too few agents patrolling the line, Allen said.

And beyond all of those limitations, there are still critics who question if the use of so many resources to prosecute many non-criminal illegal immigrants is wise.

One example: U.S. District Court pays between $6,000-$12,600 each day to private attorneys to represent illegal immigrants who go through Operation Streamline, said Heather Williams, supervisor of the Tucson Federal Public Defenders Office. Williams' office provides two to three attorneys each day but can't devote any more due to other cases.

"There is a concern, especially in this economy, about having the government use its resources" responsibly, Williams said.

Despite it all, the Border Patrol pledges to plow ahead in its attempt to eliminate a practice it says makes it too easy for illegal immigrants to return again and again with no threat of consequence.

"We are trying to think outside the box to think how we can make an impact," Allen said. "But, we also have to take into account the ability of our partners to do what is asked of them."
On StarNet: Go to azstarnet.com/ border for all of the Star's border coverage, including an interactive timeline.

Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/278217.php

Didn't Chertoff PROMISE to end CATCH AND RELEASE over two years ago?

W