Thread: OP:Feds should put a stop to "cattle-call" prosecu

Another OBL piece from the Tucson Citizen:

Published: 06.23.2008
Our Opinion: Feds should put a stop to cattle-call prosecutions
Tucson Citizen
letters@tucsoncitizen.com

In Washington, D.C., some 2,000 miles from the Arizona border, officials in air-conditioned offices tout the "success" of Operation Streamline.
That's the government's name for the mass prosecution of illegal immigrants in federal courts, where the vast majority plead guilty, receive misdemeanor convictions, little or no jail time and a stern talking-to from the magistrate.
On the scorching Arizona-Mexico border, however, there's little evidence of "success." Tens of thousands of impoverished Mexicans and Central Americans continue to try to enter the U.S. illegally.
Hundreds die annually. Four migrant deaths were reported in three days this week. At least 45 migrants have died since Oct. 1.
The federal government has announced that it will devote even more resources - nearly 100 prosecutors and support staff - to Operation Streamline in the Southwest.
We wish it wouldn't. An expanded Operation Streamline merely would mean more cattle-call justice costing taxpayers millions of dollars a year, including $2.5 million for defense work by Tucson attorneys.
All to pay for deterrence that does not deter and could be better spent on bringing real criminals to justice.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff crows that Operation Streamline is creating "striking" reductions in border crossings.
But if such declines really are occurring, they more likely are because of Arizona's employer sanctions law, the recession and meltdown in the home building industry, all of which lessen the chances of finding work here.
A recent analysis by the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies shows that immigrants are far more concerned about the risks of crossing the desert than about border enforcement.
The study also found that, despite Operation Streamline, more than 90 percent of immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca still were able to enter the United States.
What's undeniable is that immigration is dominating the federal caseload: Immigration prosecutions outnumber drug-offense prosecutions by nearly 4 to 1 and white-collar crime prosecutions by 13 to 1.
We would rather the feds go after drug dealers and corporate thieves than economic refugees.
Most immigrants being arrested are not drug kingpins or gun-runners. Of the 360 immigration convictions in Arizona federal court in March, more than 70 percent were of immigrants whose sole offense was attempting to enter the U.S. after having been deported earlier.
Yet Operation Streamline will continue, because it's a public, if not effective, display of federal muscle that deflects attention from the government's failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform: a federal mechanism holding employers responsible if they hire illegal immigrants, a guest worker program, and a path to citizenship - not amnesty.
Operation Streamline is one show that shouldn't go on.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/opinion/88914.php

If just 7 miles of the VERY HIGHLY EFFECTIVE legislated double-layered fence was this effective in Yuma (San Luis), can't you just imagine what the LEGISLATED 700 MILES OF DOUBLE-LAYERED FENCE might have done???

Border Patrol Sector Apprehensions on our Southern Border (West to East)
Fiscal Year (Oct thru Sept)---2005-----2006------2007-----FYTD 2008 (thru May 31)
Yuma Sector ---------------138,492---118,549---37,992-----6,877 *(7 miles of Double-Layered fence constructed)
Tucson Sector -------------439,053---392,074--378,239-- 235,883

Our politicians should feel guilty, not the people. The politicians are the ones still encouraging illegals to come, by still talking about granting amnesty to them, insstead of saying that ALL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WILL BE JAILED, PROSECUTED, AND DEPORTED, WITH A FELONY ON THEIR RECORD.

Send a very strong message to illegal immigrants that they aren't wanted in our country.