Illegal immigrants allowed at least five strikes (Probe into U.S. attorney firings)

Documents released in the controversy about eight fired U.S. attorneys show that federal prosecutors in Texas generally have declined to bring criminal charges against illegal immigrants caught crossing the border — until at least their sixth arrest.

A heavily redacted Department of Justice memo from late 2005 disclosed the prosecution guidelines for immigration offenses, numbers the federal government tries to keep classified. DOJ officials would not say Thursday whether it has adjusted the number since the memo was written, citing "law enforcement reasons."

The prosecution guidelines have been a source of frustration for years among the ranks of U.S. Border Patrol agents, said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. Smugglers can figure out the criteria by trial and error, he said, and can exploit it to avoid prosecution.

"It's devastating on morale," Bonner said. "Our agents are risking their lives out there, and then they're told, 'Sorry, that doesn't meet the criteria.' "

The memo was written in response to DOJ inquiries at five U.S. attorney offices, including Houston, about immigration prosecutions. The others — San Antonio, San Diego, Phoenix and Albuquerque — cover the 2,000-mile border.

In a statement, DOJ spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the agency sent 30 prosecutors to districts along the Southwest border in 2006. The added manpower "will permit districts to adjust their guidelines and take in more cases," according to the statement.

The controversy about the guidelines dates back years, but much of the recent unrest centers on a push by some members of Congress for more aggressive immigration prosecutions, particularly involving smuggling cases.

As part of the inquiry into the firing of the U.S. attorneys, the House Judiciary Committee has posted on its Web site thousands of pages of e-mail, memos, reports and testimony.

The documents offer a glimpse into the overburdened federal court and detention systems, which suffer from a "lack of resources and bed space to detain and prosecute every illegal entry violator," the DOJ memo states.

With Border Patrol agents making about 1 million arrests annually, the DOJ is forced to prioritize the most serious offense and repeated offenders, the memo states. The guidelines vary from district to district, depending on issues such as staffing and the local crime level.

In 2005, the Southern District of Texas was the busiest in the country, and sentenced 6,414 defendants, including 4,313 for immigration-related offenses, according to data from the Sentencing Commission included in another memo. The West District of Texas was second, with 5,839 defendants sentenced in 2005, records show.

In late 2005, the Border Patrol cracked down on crossings through a 200-mile zone near Del Rio and pledged to prosecute and jail each illegal immigrant arrested there before being deported, a sharp deviation from normal practice.

Nice 'toon, Gritty!

Some interesting figures here!

And here is what we're allowing in legally NOW. The author of the house bill being introduced, REP. LUIS GUTIERREZ, has NO idea how many legal 'guest workers' we have allowed in, but he's writing a bill with no figures in mind to get more. Sounds more like gambling to me.

Lou Dobbs Tonight/Broken Borders aired 3/22/07

Lou Dobbs: Let me just show you something, if I may. Because I get kind of curious about this. If we could, let's take a look at the number of people that come into this country legally every year. Can we do that? We'll look at full screen so the congressman can see this.

There's a lot of distortion here. I think it's important to get these facts out.

Two million people legally admitted to the United States each year. In addition - 14 percent of those, by the way, those people given permanent residency are from Mexico. Two million people legally admitted to the United States.
Four hundred thousand skilled foreign workers and their families receive H-1 visas each year.

Nearly 900,000 other legal foreign workers are admitted on some type of employment visa.

Six-hundred sixty thousand student visas are issued every year.

And 455,000 people given temporary employment transfers.

Help me out. What are we trying to do here? I mean, we have a lawful immigration system that brings in 2 million people a year, plus all of these other workers that overwhelms any other immigration system in the world. All of Russia, all of the European Union combined can't even come close to matching our immigration levels. And that's a population 40 percent higher than our own. Help me out.

GUTIERREZ: Well, I can help you out. I will look at those figures. I hope you -- It's a lot. I can't see them up on the screen. I can only ...

DOBBS: I was hoping you could see them?

GUTIERREZ: I can't. I can only look into the camera. I can't see them. I would love to evaluate them, Lou. Come back, talk to you some more about that. But my initial ...But kind of my initial reaction, is a lot of those people overstay their visas. We've got to stop that. And they are compounding the problem of undocumented workers. That's probably why a lot of them cross the border, they come here legally, overstay their visa.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0703/22/ldt.01.html

"So jailing everyone that commits a crime is a waste of time and money?"

You got that right. I can think of dozens of crimes that shouldn't result in jailtime. You think locking up 12MM people who sneak into this country is a good use of resources? You have any idea how much that would cost? What about when they get let out, you don't think they will come back?

The answer is to not give them a reason to be here in the first place.

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