EP won't prosecute migrants
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 10/26/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

A trend along the border to prosecute undocumented immigrants on misdemeanor counts of being in the country illegally will be launched today in Laredo, but officials in El Paso said there were no plans to have a similar operation here.

The zero-tolerance operation, dubbed "Streamline," has already begun in Del Rio, Texas, and Yuma, Ariz.

Operation Streamline consists of charging undocumented immigrants with the misdemeanor "entry without inspection," for which they can face up to 180 days behind bars. After serving their sentences, all will be formally deported, which means they risk more prison time if they come back illegally.

Proponents of the program said this would be a better deterrent than the current practice of "voluntary return," in which undocumented immigrants who don't have a criminal record are sent back to Mexico within hours of being caught and often try to cross again at the next opportunity.

Michael Green, legislative assistant for U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, said Operation Streamline would "reduce immigration and drug smuggling."

In Yuma, Operation Streamline led to the prosecution of 1,200 immigrants in about five months last year, according to Border Patrol data. That sector also saw a 70 percent reduction in apprehensions, but officials said that could not be attributed solely to the new initiative.

In Laredo, Border Patrol agents caught 90,534 undocumented immigrants in 2006, agency officials said.

Some worried that prosecuting
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and jailing large numbers of people for relatively minor offenses would burden an already swamped court system.

"You're using U.S. magistrate resources and public defenders' resources. To me this is a waste of resources. Why am I not using my U.S. magistrates to go after drug smugglers?" said El Paso immigration lawyer Kathleen Walker, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

El Paso Border Patrol officials said Thursday that they were not planning to institute Operation Streamline.

"It's not a national operation; it's a sector operation. Each sector has their own operation driven by their own necessity. Like, Arizona Border Control Initiative, that was in Arizona. That wasn't here," Border Patrol spokesman Ramiro Cordero said.

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_7282279