Posted on 09/19/2005 12:03:19 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
BROWNSVILLE - Twenty-five men and women stood at the back of a crowded federal courtroom one morning last month, and in a single emphatic voice pleaded guilty to immigration charges in a mass hearing. After each was sentenced, most to time served, the "cattle call" was over in little more than an hour.
They included a Mexican youth who washes windshields for tips on Brownsville streets — and had logged 29 previous arrests for illegal entry — and a group of men who waded the Rio Grande. In years past, Border Patrol agents would have taken names and snapped photographs, and allowed them to voluntarily return to Mexico the same day.
But in the sprawling Southern District of Texas, from Houston to Laredo and downriver to Brownsville, a get-tough policy has many immigration offenders being prosecuted. They are held in jail, brought before a federal magistrate, appointed a defense attorney, and allowed to plead guilty to misdemeanor immigration charges. Most are sentenced to time served and released.
The new policy, which netted 18,092 convictions in South Texas border towns during fiscal year 2004 — has been touted by Justice Department officials as a step to bolster national security.
But many critics, including a government prosecutor, insist it is a waste of crucial federal manpower.
"It's not a good idea," said Jeff Wilde, a federal public defender who represented most of those who appeared at the hearing in Brownsville. "You have a guy who washes car windshields, and now he's facing a (potential) felony. ... Our resources could be better spent."
The public defender said that many of those prosecuted are residents of Mexican border towns who lack the means to qualify for a border-crossing card, a credential issued by the U.S. State Department after a criminal and financial background check.
"You saw all the poor people in there; if you have money, you can get a crossing card," Wilde said.
Closing the cracks
Wilde is not alone among critics who say the prosecutions are of dubious value since, under sentencing guidelines, even maximum sentences are no more than six months. Jailing the approximately 200,000 undocumented migrants caught in the Southern District each year also will require a significant increase in staffing of Border Patrol agents, immigration inspectors, federal prosecutors, probation officers, marshals and a huge increase in detention facilities.
"All we're doing is keeping a spinning door spinning. We're not making an impact," complained one federal prosecutor, who asked not to be identified. "You've got to ask if any of these sentences are a deterrent. It's a revolving door."
Former U.S. Attorney Mike Shelby, in an interview with the Associated Press, said the policy change was a post-9/11 effort at tightening the border.
"We wanted to ensure that no one slipped through the cracks in this very porous region of the United States," said Shelby, who stepped down in June.
"Back in 2002, we changed our policy to try to move as many cases as we could from the administrative side of the house to the criminal side of the house, even if that meant that we just filed misdemeanor cases on those people and they just got time served and were deported."
The policy change was reflected in a recent study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which tracks federal cases, and showed immigration convictions in the Southern District rising from 4,062 in 2003 to 18,092 in 2004.
Puts scofflaws in system
However, U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg said the large increase was prompted by a change in reporting procedures, explaining that misdemeanor cases were not included before 2003.
He defended the policy his predecessor began.
"There's some value to it," he said. "This is a crime that occurs with alarming frequency on the border. When you prosecute someone for illegal entry, you get them into the system and there's a value to that.
"The simple reality is we don't have the resources to prosecute everyone who comes into the country illegally," Rosenberg said.
While federal magistrates sometimes appoint private attorneys to represent immigration defendants, the burden has been shouldered largely by the 54 attorneys working for the Public Defenders Office in the Southern District.
"It's put an incredible strain (on attorneys). We are still providing effective assistance, but we are burning people out," said Marjorie Meyers, who heads the federal Public Defenders Office in Houston.
Meyers noted that before a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision required misdemeanor defendants to have legal counsel, undocumented immigrants frequently pleaded guilty on instructions from court employees or Border Patrol agents.
Public defenders in Brownsville, Laredo and McAllen handled 8,482 misdemeanor immigration cases in fiscal 2003, another 15,357 in 2004 and 7,199 through August of this year, Meyers said.
The government, Meyers said, is wasting resources on prosecutions of immigrants coming to reunite with family or to seek employment.
"We're putting our finger in a dike that's going to break, and we're certainly not focused on people who are going to harm our country," Meyers said. "Which isn't to say there can't be dangerous people crossing on the Mexican border, but that's certainly not what we're seeing."
The defendants before U.S. Magistrate Felix Recio seemed to bear out Meyers' contention: Most cases were economic or an attempt to reunite a family.
"I came here only to work," a Mexican youth told the judge. "I have a 4-month-old son. I come here to cut yards and wash cars to buy diapers for my son."
'Serious business'
The magistrate, after sentencing the youth to time served, placed several U.S. citizens on probation for attempting to smuggle relatives across the border by claiming they were citizens.
Recio was stern with a Galveston high school teacher caught bringing her brother-in-law across at Brownsville. Her two children were along for the ride.
"You brought your children and put them in harm's way?" the judge asked.
The teacher began to cry and said she took the risk because she was concerned for his safety. "I wouldn't want him to die in the desert," she sobbed.
The judge, noting the teacher had a college degree and should be held to a higher standard, sentenced her to a year's probation, a $250 fine and 50 hours of community service in Galveston.
"This is serious business," Recio said. "I'm not going to let you off the hook."
Immigration attorneys in South Texas say the prosecutions, in addition to taking the focus off prosecution of drug traffickers and sexual predators, will do little to stem illegal immigration.
"The problem is systemic," said Harlingen immigration attorney Jodi Goodwin. "And until there is some kind of comprehensive immigration reform — a way for people to come and work temporarily or to reunite with their families — I don't think the stream of people will ever stop."
james.pinkerton@chron.com
Maybe her school district has a policy of not employing felons. They should be able to dump her for inappropriate conduct.
Just another dog and pony show till they secure the borders.
It isn't cut and dried.
Federal, local, and state prosecutors in border states are devastated by the sheer number of illegal aliens coming in from South America.
This is a major reason why so many illegals run free - there is nowhere to put them once arrested and the system to prosecute them is broken down from exhaustion.
The Feds are begging for amnesty just to get relief from enforcing laws they have neither the funding, manpower, nor facilities to enforce.
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"The problem is systemic," said Harlingen immigration attorney Jodi Goodwin."And until there is some kind of comprehensive immigration reform — a way for people to come and work temporarily or to reunite with their families — I don't think the stream of people will ever stop."
Entering the USA illegally is only a misdemeanor. Unfortunately. But re-entering after being deported is a felony and I'd love to see this law widely enforced. Put them all in tent city prisons and feed them two baloney sandwiches a day until they get booted back to Mexico or put on a ship back to Central America.
Central America is just as filthy as Mexico. Has the same white Spanish racists on top of the food chain. They inundate us with illegal aliens
Jailing them cost more than letting them live here on welfare.
It's not something that has an easy solution.
Yup. 500 years of misery and desperation at the hands of self-impressed trash - Spain's gift to the New World.
It would be funny to watch their countries implode, if it weren't for the fact that we have to bear the brunt of the side effects.
I couldn't say it any better than you.
Thanks for the Ping. You are doing a great job on this issue..just seems to fall on deaf ears in the Bush Whitehouse and GOP in congress..this is a federal problem dumped on the states..I still withhold all donations to GOP until this issue is FULLY addressed and a plan is in place to secure the border.
They people they should be hauling into those court rooms are the people that Hire Illegals that encourage them to come here.
Prosecuting these people doesn't make good sense.
A fence system like this would cost less than what we spend on illegal aliens every month.
It seems cruel, but, 'it'll break the dog from sucking eggs."
ping
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
Yes it does:
First, change the the law that gives citizenship to any person born on U.S. soil.
Second, eliminate all State and Federal benefits to any and every person who is not in the county legally, with the exception of acute medical care in life or death situations only.
Third, do not release illegal from custody with an appearance ticket to appear in INS court a year down the road. Either they are sent back across the border immediately or they are sent to a prison camp with minimal facilities while they await an INS hearing.
Fourth, deduct $10,000 from our annual aid package to Mexico (or some other predetermined amount) for each illegal that comes across the Mexican border, and put the money into a special fund to offset the cost of prosecuting illegals and...
Fifth, ...building an Israeli style wall across our southern border from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
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