'Operation Streamline' to jail illegal immigrants

'Operation Streamline' to jail illegal immigrants

Posted: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 10:50 a.m.

A controversial program that has been used against illegal immigrants in Del Rio and Laredo is now being applied in the Rio Grande Valley.

The Border Patrol's "Operation Streamline" ended the agency's "catch and release" policy for some illegal immigrants in those sectors and is now doing the same here.

The program uses partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies to prosecute illegal immigrants in federal court and house them in local jails.

Texas Commission on Jail Standards reports show that most Valley jails are at or near capacity but Border Patrol officials seem confident the program will work here and deter illegal immigration.

Border Patrol Spokesman Ricardo Rosas told Action 4 News that all first-time illegal immigrants will be prosecuted under a misdemeanor illegal entry charge and sentenced for to up six months in jail.

Immigrants convicted under the program will be barred from re-entering the United States for five years.

If an immigrant returns before that five years time, they could face felony illegal re-entry charges punishable from 3 to 20 years in federal prison.

But Lupita Valdez-Cox with the Hispanic civil rights group La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) said immigration reform is the best way to solve the problem.

Valdez-Cox said undocumented immigrants come to the United States because they are needed but are not given enough legal opportunities to work here.

"You are prosecuting people who are only in search of making a better life for themselves and their family," she said.

Watch more of our interviews with Rosas and Valdez-Cox in our video clip.