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The Obama administration deported a record 1.6 million non-citizens through such formal removals between fiscal year 2009 and 2012. 30 Referrals for Criminal Prosecution and Operation Streamline Both US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are empowered to refer unauthorized immigrants for federal criminal prosecution before formally deporting them. CBP refers significantly more cases. In 2012, CBP referred 86 percent of all illegal entry cases and 46 percent of all illegal reentry cases; ICE referred 1 percent of illegal entry and 25 percent of illegal reentry cases. 31 An artist’s rendering of an Operation Streamline hearing in Tucson, Arizona on May 6, 2013. © 2013 Maggie Keane for Human Right Watch 30 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), “Removal Statistics,” http://www.ice.gov/removal-statistics (accessed April 12, 2013). 31 Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), “Going Deeper” tool, Prosecutions filed by agency, 2012, http://tracfed.syr.edu/index/index.php?layer=cri (accessed May 10, 2013). See also TRAC, “Continued Decline and Shifting Focus Seen in Criminal Immigration Prosecutions,” November 19, 2012, http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/300/ (accessed April 14, 2013). 19 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013
Before 2005, CBP only referred non-citizens with criminal records or repeat offenders for criminal prosecution. Others, including first-time migrants, were returned or removed. In 2005, however, that policy changed with the advent of Operation Streamline in Del Rio, Texas. Touted as a “zero-tolerance” program toward all non-citizens caught crossing the border without authorization, CBP claimed that they were prosecuting nearly everyone they apprehended in the Del Rio sector. 32 CBP no longer promotes Streamline as a “zerotolerance” program, and CBP does not come close to referring every migrant apprehended for criminal prosecution; immigration authorities in 2010 made about 17 federal criminal arrests per 100 apprehensions in Southwest Border Patrol sectors. 33 Rather, CBP describes criminal prosecution as one option in its “consequence delivery system,” which is designed to “uniquely evaluate each subject and apply the appropriate post-arrest consequences … to break the smuggling cycle and end the subject’s desire to attempt further illegal entry.” 34 32 Joanna Lydgate, “Assembly-Line Justice: A Review of Operation Streamline,” The Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity, University of California, Berkeley Law School, January 2010, http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Operation_Streamline_Policy_Brief.pdf (accessed April 25, 2013). 33 Human Rights Watch meeting with US Customs and Border Protection, February 23, 2013; Motivans, “Immigration Offenders in the Federal Justice System, 2010,” July 2012, http://bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4392, p. 8. 34 US Customs and Border Protection, “2012-2016: Border Patrol Strategic Plan,” http://nemo.cbp.gov/obp/bp_strategic_plan.pdf (accessed April 12, 2013). TURNING MIGRANTS INTO CRIMINALS 20
Page 1 and 2: H U M A N R I G H T S W A T C H TUR
Page 3 and 4: All rights reserved. Printed in the
Page 6 and 7: Summary “I have not lost the desi
Page 8 and 9: Alicia’s comments above suggest,
Page 10 and 11: The breadth and scope of criminal p
Page 12 and 13: Recommendations To the US Congress
Page 14 and 15: Methodology This report is based on
Page 16 and 17: I. Background Illegal entry and pre
Page 18 and 19: 13 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013
Page 20 and 21: offenses, as well as “proportiona
Page 22 and 23: The guideline for illegal entry off
Page 28 and 29: II. Criminal Prosecutions Fail to F
Page 30 and 31: Sentencing Commission Data: Limits
Page 34 and 35: TABLE 2: PERCENT CHANGE IN THE APPL
Page 36 and 37: The rising number of prosecutions o
Page 38 and 39: Critical Views of Judges and Attorn
Page 40 and 41: According to court records and thei
Page 42 and 43: these defendants, the stages of a f
Page 44 and 45: other court staff, Streamline proce
Page 46 and 47: Diverting Resources from Serious Cr
Page 48 and 49: III. Criminal Prosecutions Impinge
Page 50 and 51: ecently deported, 110 a trend also
Page 52 and 53: again illegally; such individuals
Page 54 and 55: Being in jail in Pecos was hard on
Page 56 and 57: experience, “One or two out of te
Page 58 and 59: probation and did not serve any tim
Page 60 and 61: who was starting to get in trouble
Page 62 and 63: “Though I’m in jail here, I fee
Page 64 and 65: Immigration law separates these fam
Page 66 and 67: were targeting schoolchildren as po
Page 68 and 69: esources. The problems were highlig
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Page 72 and 73: In addition to the trauma criminal
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IV. Is It Worth It? The US governme
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CBP also claims that its statistics
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particular migrant. Criminal statut
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Bureau of Prisons has contracts wor
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there is nowhere to run. There is n
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officials had looked at this case:
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Upon arrival in Mexico, Carlos, who
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TURNING MIGRANTS INTO CRIMINALS The
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