July 9, 2008 - 11:09AM
Jeremy Roebuck
SAN JUAN -- Four community groups sought clarification in federal court Wednesday on whether authorities will conduct immigration checks in the event of a hurricane evacuation.
The activists filed a petition Wednesday asking a judge to order the U.S. Border Patrol to clearly outline its policy on what documents, if any, will be needed to pass through checkpoints should a storm hit the Rio Grande Valley.
"To prevent a Hurricane Katrina-type catastrophe, residents must know what is going to happen when an evacuation is called," said Juanita Valdez-Cox, Texas director of La Union del Pueblo Entero, one of the groups that filed the petition in U.S. District Court in McAllen.
"We must have answers to make sure residents of the Valley find safety."
The issue came under renewed scrutiny during a mock evacuation drill earlier this year in which agents were observed asking the fake evacuees for proof of citizenship or legal residency.
City leaders and migrant rights activists protested, fearing such tactics would deter people from fleeing in advance of a storm and would slow down the overall evacuation process.
"Border Patrol has set in motion the conditions for a perfect storm," said Eric Rodriguez, an attorney for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which represents the petitioners. "By pursuing this reckless law enforcement policy, they've created a danger for everyone."
Since then, however, Gov. Rick Perry's office reported it had received assurances that no checks would occur during an evacuation, but federal officials would not confirm that policy.
Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has only dialed down his department's original rhetoric.
"We're not going to be bogging people down with checks or doing things to delay the rapid movement of people out of the zone of danger," he said during a May news conference.
But lawyers for the community groups pointed out Wednesday that confusion lingers and could affect individual decisions on whether to stay or leave.
"It's already hurricane season," said the South Texas Civil Rights Project's Corinna Spencer-Scheurich. "This could become an issue next week - any day now."
Valdez-Cox's organization, LUPE, joined with three Cameron County community groups - Proyecto Juan Diego, Proyecto Digna and San Felipe Community Church - in filing the petition Wednesday.
Government officials have at least 20 days to respond under federal court guidelines.
Spencer-Scheurich said she hopes a judge will make a ruling within the next month.
____
Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.
Showing posts with label Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP). Show all posts
July 3, 2008
The Justice Department's actions should honor the First Amendment
Harrington: James C. Harrington, DIRECTOR, TEXAS CIVIL RIGHTS PROJECT
Thursday, July 03, 2008
A number of social justice and environmental groups, including the Texas Civil Rights Project, recently learned we appeared on the U.S. Department of Justice employment "hit list." The June 24 report, prepared for Congress by the DOJ Offices of Inspector General and Professional Responsibility, revealed rampant partisan, politically-motivated hiring at DOJ.
Anyone who ever worked with TCRP was barred from DOJ employment. We were branded as a "liberal" organization, as juxtaposed to "conservative" groups (from which DOJ would hire).
There is nothing uniquely "liberal" about TCRP's work. In fact, you could just as well call it "conservative" since our job is to protect and defend the constitutional and civil rights of poor and low-income people who do not have the resources to hire their own attorney.
What the Administration really was doing, until caught, was "no-listing" organizations it perceived as opposing its policies or actions, and favoring those groups that were supportive.
I have been doing civil rights work for 35 years, and it makes not one bit of difference to me whether the Administration is Republican or Democrat; if the government violates the law and hurts people, the courts are there for redress. Our job is to help people find redress.
The most reprehensible part of this secret DOJ agenda was how it hurt the lives of young folks, especially law students, who come to volunteer with us. About 25 law students and volunteers generously give their time every year to help us help people. Examples of the some of their work include handling cases for people with physical disabilities, assisting abused immigrant women become independent and get status in this country under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), helping farm workers collect minimum wages, suing police officers who engage in brutality, and so on.
Why should their future careers be penalized because of their personal generosity and sacrifice as students? They give up significant summer salaries to help people, only to be punished by their government. In prior Administrations, both Republican and Democratic, DOJ has hired students who have worked with TCRP, but that was when DOJ hired people on merit. That has not been the case with this Administration. One would think that DOJ would want to hire students or lawyers who have done community work and understand the day-to-day application of the law.
If the First Amendment means anything, it is that people have to right to say, think, and do as they want, so long as they don't hurt others, without any political retaliation from the government. DOJ apparently has yet to learn, and practice, that basic premise of our democracy.
It's especially reprehensible when this systemic political discrimination occurs in the very agency charged with enforcing fair and impartial justice throughout the country.
On July 4, we celebrate our declaration of independence from a monarchy that plagued the colonies with political suppression and favoritism. The question to ask ourselves this year is how does it happen our Department of Justice is now doing the same thing, albeit in a kinder and gentler fashion, but still oppressively? And, once having asked the question, what are we going to do to make sure our government respects our rights, and not undermines them?
Thursday, July 03, 2008
A number of social justice and environmental groups, including the Texas Civil Rights Project, recently learned we appeared on the U.S. Department of Justice employment "hit list." The June 24 report, prepared for Congress by the DOJ Offices of Inspector General and Professional Responsibility, revealed rampant partisan, politically-motivated hiring at DOJ.
Anyone who ever worked with TCRP was barred from DOJ employment. We were branded as a "liberal" organization, as juxtaposed to "conservative" groups (from which DOJ would hire).
There is nothing uniquely "liberal" about TCRP's work. In fact, you could just as well call it "conservative" since our job is to protect and defend the constitutional and civil rights of poor and low-income people who do not have the resources to hire their own attorney.
What the Administration really was doing, until caught, was "no-listing" organizations it perceived as opposing its policies or actions, and favoring those groups that were supportive.
I have been doing civil rights work for 35 years, and it makes not one bit of difference to me whether the Administration is Republican or Democrat; if the government violates the law and hurts people, the courts are there for redress. Our job is to help people find redress.
The most reprehensible part of this secret DOJ agenda was how it hurt the lives of young folks, especially law students, who come to volunteer with us. About 25 law students and volunteers generously give their time every year to help us help people. Examples of the some of their work include handling cases for people with physical disabilities, assisting abused immigrant women become independent and get status in this country under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), helping farm workers collect minimum wages, suing police officers who engage in brutality, and so on.
Why should their future careers be penalized because of their personal generosity and sacrifice as students? They give up significant summer salaries to help people, only to be punished by their government. In prior Administrations, both Republican and Democratic, DOJ has hired students who have worked with TCRP, but that was when DOJ hired people on merit. That has not been the case with this Administration. One would think that DOJ would want to hire students or lawyers who have done community work and understand the day-to-day application of the law.
If the First Amendment means anything, it is that people have to right to say, think, and do as they want, so long as they don't hurt others, without any political retaliation from the government. DOJ apparently has yet to learn, and practice, that basic premise of our democracy.
It's especially reprehensible when this systemic political discrimination occurs in the very agency charged with enforcing fair and impartial justice throughout the country.
On July 4, we celebrate our declaration of independence from a monarchy that plagued the colonies with political suppression and favoritism. The question to ask ourselves this year is how does it happen our Department of Justice is now doing the same thing, albeit in a kinder and gentler fashion, but still oppressively? And, once having asked the question, what are we going to do to make sure our government respects our rights, and not undermines them?
June 13, 2008
Texas Civil Rights Project merits accolades in seeking justice
Texas Civil Rights Project merits accolades in seeking justice
Ouisa D. Davis / Guest columnist
Article Launched: 06/13/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT
If you ever meet George McAlmon or Jim Harrington, you'll be drawn to their gentle spirits, peace-filled gaze and softness of speech. But they are formidable men, valiant and unwavering in their pursuit of justice for those excluded from the justice system.
McAlmon has done so as a private attorney since 1950, well known for his advocacy and efforts to provide access to legal services and protection of civil rights in our border community.
Harrington is executive director and founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal aid clinic promoting racial, social, and economic justice and protecting civil rights provided under the U.S. Constitution, state and federal law.
Striving to foster equality, secure justice, ensure diversity and strengthen communities, TCRP was founded in 1990 and now has an established presence in South Texas, Austin, El Paso and Midland/Odessa.
For over 18 years TCRP has tirelessly advocated for racial, social and economic equality in Texas through education and litigation. The Project has worked steadfastly to extend rights to farmworkers and residents of the Rio Grande Valley to improve their living and working conditions.
No area of civil rights is invisible to TCRP's vigilant gaze.
Achieving substantial gains in ensuring justice, TCRP uses education and litigation to create structural change in areas such as voting rights, police and Border Patrol misconduct, sex discrimination, employment bias, privacy, disability rights, grand
jury discrimination, traditional civil liberties, protections under immigration and education law.
Because of TCRP, jails in Hidalgo, El Paso, Henderson, Tom Green, Williamson, Travis, Bexar, Dallas, and Brown Counties do more to prevent inmate suicide, provide interpreters for deaf prisoners, protect vulnerable inmates from sexual assault, administer HIV medications, and make jails accessible for inmates with disabilities.
TCRP now has an El Paso office, the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project, which, over the past two years, has taken on the task of education and reform, improving access to public and private facilities and programs for the disabled and raising consciousness regarding compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Developing a bilingual consumer rights curriculum targeted at colonia residents, the agency provides education in homeowner rights and responsibilities and protections.
PDNCRP delivers legal services to 17 underserved counties for undocumented domestic violence victims, leadership training and community education in immigration rights and protections under state and federal law.
Addressing police misconduct throughout West Texas and Southern New Mexico, PDNCRP resolved cases of excessive force by law enforcement officers, false arrest, racial profiling and warrantless searches of homes, including negotiating a Taser policy with Odessa police to prevent the use of this weapon against the elderly, children and pregnant women.
PDNCRP vigorously protects First Amendment guarantees of free speech and peaceful assembly, defending a San Elizario storeowner against false charges when El Paso sheriff's deputies retaliated against him for protesting immigration roadblocks and mediating a training program for El Paso Police Department officers after allegations of police assault during a peaceful rally at Montwood High.
Café Mayapan, 2000 Texas Street, will reverberate with the celebration of the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project Fiesta Fronteriza on June 20 when McAlmon will be honored for his dedication.
Tickets are available online at texascivilrightsproject.org or by calling 532-2799.
Ouisa D. Davis is an attorney at law in El Paso. E-mail: Ouisadavis@yahoo.com
http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_9567753
Ouisa D. Davis / Guest columnist
Article Launched: 06/13/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT
If you ever meet George McAlmon or Jim Harrington, you'll be drawn to their gentle spirits, peace-filled gaze and softness of speech. But they are formidable men, valiant and unwavering in their pursuit of justice for those excluded from the justice system.
McAlmon has done so as a private attorney since 1950, well known for his advocacy and efforts to provide access to legal services and protection of civil rights in our border community.
Harrington is executive director and founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal aid clinic promoting racial, social, and economic justice and protecting civil rights provided under the U.S. Constitution, state and federal law.
Striving to foster equality, secure justice, ensure diversity and strengthen communities, TCRP was founded in 1990 and now has an established presence in South Texas, Austin, El Paso and Midland/Odessa.
For over 18 years TCRP has tirelessly advocated for racial, social and economic equality in Texas through education and litigation. The Project has worked steadfastly to extend rights to farmworkers and residents of the Rio Grande Valley to improve their living and working conditions.
No area of civil rights is invisible to TCRP's vigilant gaze.
Achieving substantial gains in ensuring justice, TCRP uses education and litigation to create structural change in areas such as voting rights, police and Border Patrol misconduct, sex discrimination, employment bias, privacy, disability rights, grand
jury discrimination, traditional civil liberties, protections under immigration and education law.
Because of TCRP, jails in Hidalgo, El Paso, Henderson, Tom Green, Williamson, Travis, Bexar, Dallas, and Brown Counties do more to prevent inmate suicide, provide interpreters for deaf prisoners, protect vulnerable inmates from sexual assault, administer HIV medications, and make jails accessible for inmates with disabilities.
TCRP now has an El Paso office, the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project, which, over the past two years, has taken on the task of education and reform, improving access to public and private facilities and programs for the disabled and raising consciousness regarding compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Developing a bilingual consumer rights curriculum targeted at colonia residents, the agency provides education in homeowner rights and responsibilities and protections.
PDNCRP delivers legal services to 17 underserved counties for undocumented domestic violence victims, leadership training and community education in immigration rights and protections under state and federal law.
Addressing police misconduct throughout West Texas and Southern New Mexico, PDNCRP resolved cases of excessive force by law enforcement officers, false arrest, racial profiling and warrantless searches of homes, including negotiating a Taser policy with Odessa police to prevent the use of this weapon against the elderly, children and pregnant women.
PDNCRP vigorously protects First Amendment guarantees of free speech and peaceful assembly, defending a San Elizario storeowner against false charges when El Paso sheriff's deputies retaliated against him for protesting immigration roadblocks and mediating a training program for El Paso Police Department officers after allegations of police assault during a peaceful rally at Montwood High.
Café Mayapan, 2000 Texas Street, will reverberate with the celebration of the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project Fiesta Fronteriza on June 20 when McAlmon will be honored for his dedication.
Tickets are available online at texascivilrightsproject.org or by calling 532-2799.
Ouisa D. Davis is an attorney at law in El Paso. E-mail: Ouisadavis@yahoo.com
http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_9567753
June 11, 2008
Border patrol employs zero-tolerance approach in Del Rio
Sun, May. 25, 2008
Border patrol employs zero-tolerance approach in Del Rio
By JAY ROOTStar-Telegram staff writer
DEL RIO -- Many enforcement hawks in Congress are counting on border walls to discourage illegal immigration and drug smuggling. In Del Rio, authorities are using prison walls instead.
The ever-expanding Val Verde County Jail is filled with illegal immigrants ranging from would-be yard workers and maids to hardened gang members. They've been caught in a law enforcement dragnet known as Operation Streamline, a zero-tolerance program that began here and has spread east and west along the border.
The lock-'em-up approach has its share of critics. They question the skyrocketing costs, complain of poor conditions in the detention facilities and predict that it ultimately won't stop immigrants and drugs from making their way north.
But supporters here say the long arm of the law is reducing crime and pushing the numbers of illegal immigrants caught in the Border Patrol's Del Rio sector down to their lowest levels since the early 1970s.
"Enforcement works," Val Verde County Sheriff D'Wayne Jernigan said. "We're definitely seeing a reduction in crime throughout the border area and a reduction in the number of aliens running loose in our community."
Though federal authorities plan to build a small section of border fence near the bridge linking Del Rio and Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, Jernigan, who prefers boots on the ground to physical barriers, says the illegal traffic has slowed without a wall.
In 2007, 22,920 people were caught in the Del Rio sector, many of whom passed through the Val Verde jail. In 1974, the earliest year-end figures available, almost twice that many -- 44,806 --were caught. Authorities believe that fewer captures mean fewer illegal crossings.
As recently as 2000, 157,178 illegal immigrants were caught in the sector, which stretches along 210 miles of the Rio Grande and encompasses 41 counties. Then, in late 2005, after an outcry from the sheriff and other local officials, the Border Patrol started Operation Streamline in the Del Rio sector. It was later expanded to Yuma, Ariz., and most recently to Laredo.
The new approach does away with the practice of "catch and release." For years, thousands of undocumented foreign nationals caught along the border were released for lack of jail space and given a notice to appear in court. Most simply vanished into the underground economy.
Now the buzz phrase is "catch and detain," meaning virtually everybody who gets caught is sent to federal court or returned to their home country immediately. As a result, the Justice Department has dramatically increased prosecutions, creating a logistical and financial burden that Attorney General Michael Mukasey recently called "staggering."
Along with it has come an almost insatiable demand for jail space.
Eight years ago, the Val Verde County Jail had 180 beds. This year, after a second 600-bed expansion, the maximum-security jail has room for 1,425 prisoners, an increase of almost 700 percent. While the state prisoner population in Val Verde has remained about 70 to 80 a day on average, the number serving time for federal immigration and drug offenses has skyrocketed, officials say.
"If it wasn't for federal prisoners, we wouldn't need any of this. It just wouldn't be necessary," Jernigan said while giving a tour of the huge facility he oversees in Del Rio. "This is a federal court city, and there's a need to house federal prisoners here."
Two prisons specializing in federal detainees are going up along the Texas-Mexico border southeast of here -- a 654-bed unit in Eagle Pass and a 1,500-bed jail nearing completion in Laredo. Like the Val Verde lockup, these facilities are run by the Geo Group, formerly known as Wackenhut, which last year posted its best financial results ever, the company said.
Even the largest jail for illegal immigrants, the Willacy County Jail, is too small to accommodate federal demands. Located in Raymondville -- nicknamed "Prisonville" -- it is expanding capacity from 2,000 to 3,000 beds this year, officials say.
The detention boom hasn't been done on the cheap.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it costs $88 a day to house a prisoner in privately run jails.
Nationwide, the average number of prisoners the agency holds daily has increased 44 percent since 2001, figures show. Meanwhile, its budget for detention and removal operations has more than doubled in the past four years, rising from $959 million in fiscal 2004 to $2.4 billion in 2008, according to agency data.
Securing the porous southern border became an urgent national priority after the 9-11 attacks. The number of Border Patrol agents on duty, for example, will have doubled by the time President Bush leaves office, to 18,000, according to federal officials.
But Bush's proposed immigration overhaul, which would have given guest worker permits to certain Mexican laborers, collapsed in Congress last year. That paved the way for workplace raids, an increase in fines for people caught hiring illegal migrants, an expansion of electronic worker verification programs and a series of anti-immigrant measures enacted by state legislatures.
Critics say the get-tough policies have been extraordinarily costly, both in financial and human terms. The U.S. already locks up far more people than any other country per capita, according to the London-based International Centre for Prison Studies. And a recent Washington Post investigation revealed medical negligence and substandard healthcare in detention facilities that hold foreign nationals, prompting congressional inquiries.
Judy Greene, an analyst at Justice Strategies, a nonprofit group that studies incarceration alternatives, compared the repressive measures to the war on drugs. She said other approaches, including supervised release and electronic monitoring, are effective, more humane and far less expensive.
"Throwing money at the problem and then claiming that temporary gains are total victories is futile," she said. "I think Americans will come to see this over time, just like they did with the drug war, which didn't have the advertised effect."
Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, which provides legal aid to many undocumented workers, said the crackdown is doomed to fail because it doesn't address the root causes of illegal immigration. He blamed a massive "economic dislocation" in Mexico, where he said free-trade policies have devastated rural agriculture and sent field hands fleeing.
"I think we could lean on Mexico and tell them there's no financial aid, reciprocity, any of that stuff, unless Mexico makes progress toward democratizing its own economy," Harrington said. "Without that, we're going to continue what we're doing now, and that's investing an endless amount of money into a Band-Aid that's just not going to hold."
Ricardo Ahuja, the Mexican consul in Del Rio, said migrants are already breaking through the physical and legal barriers.
"They're finding other routes," Ahuja said. "It's a question of supply and demand. If there weren't jobs waiting for them in the U.S., they wouldn't cross."
But supporters of the crackdown say that the data prove it's working and that the alternative is to suspend the rule of law on the border. U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, is pushing Congress to expand the zero-tolerance polices along the entire border.
"This has an unbelievable deterrent effect," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said during a recent news conference. "When people who cross the border illegally are brought to face the reality that they were committing a crime, even if it's just a misdemeanor, that has a huge impact on their willingness to try again."
Spending is up
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's spending for detention and removal of illegal immigrants has soared 148 percent since 2004.
Fiscal year DRO budget
2004 $959,232
2005 $1,218,391
2006 $1,645,370
2007 $1,984,345
2008 $2,381,401
Source: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Apprehensions are down
Since the Border Patrol began Operation Streamline in 2005, arrests of illegal immigrants in the Del Rio sector have dropped 66 percent.
Del Rio sector arrests U.S.- Mexico border arrests
2007 22,920 858,638
2006 42,636 1,071,972
2005 68,506 1,171,396
2004 53,794 1,139,282
Source: Customs and Border Protection; fiscal year apprehension figures
jroot@star-telegram.com
JAY ROOT, 512-476-4294
http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/662631.html
Border patrol employs zero-tolerance approach in Del Rio
By JAY ROOTStar-Telegram staff writer
DEL RIO -- Many enforcement hawks in Congress are counting on border walls to discourage illegal immigration and drug smuggling. In Del Rio, authorities are using prison walls instead.
The ever-expanding Val Verde County Jail is filled with illegal immigrants ranging from would-be yard workers and maids to hardened gang members. They've been caught in a law enforcement dragnet known as Operation Streamline, a zero-tolerance program that began here and has spread east and west along the border.
The lock-'em-up approach has its share of critics. They question the skyrocketing costs, complain of poor conditions in the detention facilities and predict that it ultimately won't stop immigrants and drugs from making their way north.
But supporters here say the long arm of the law is reducing crime and pushing the numbers of illegal immigrants caught in the Border Patrol's Del Rio sector down to their lowest levels since the early 1970s.
"Enforcement works," Val Verde County Sheriff D'Wayne Jernigan said. "We're definitely seeing a reduction in crime throughout the border area and a reduction in the number of aliens running loose in our community."
Though federal authorities plan to build a small section of border fence near the bridge linking Del Rio and Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, Jernigan, who prefers boots on the ground to physical barriers, says the illegal traffic has slowed without a wall.
In 2007, 22,920 people were caught in the Del Rio sector, many of whom passed through the Val Verde jail. In 1974, the earliest year-end figures available, almost twice that many -- 44,806 --were caught. Authorities believe that fewer captures mean fewer illegal crossings.
As recently as 2000, 157,178 illegal immigrants were caught in the sector, which stretches along 210 miles of the Rio Grande and encompasses 41 counties. Then, in late 2005, after an outcry from the sheriff and other local officials, the Border Patrol started Operation Streamline in the Del Rio sector. It was later expanded to Yuma, Ariz., and most recently to Laredo.
The new approach does away with the practice of "catch and release." For years, thousands of undocumented foreign nationals caught along the border were released for lack of jail space and given a notice to appear in court. Most simply vanished into the underground economy.
Now the buzz phrase is "catch and detain," meaning virtually everybody who gets caught is sent to federal court or returned to their home country immediately. As a result, the Justice Department has dramatically increased prosecutions, creating a logistical and financial burden that Attorney General Michael Mukasey recently called "staggering."
Along with it has come an almost insatiable demand for jail space.
Eight years ago, the Val Verde County Jail had 180 beds. This year, after a second 600-bed expansion, the maximum-security jail has room for 1,425 prisoners, an increase of almost 700 percent. While the state prisoner population in Val Verde has remained about 70 to 80 a day on average, the number serving time for federal immigration and drug offenses has skyrocketed, officials say.
"If it wasn't for federal prisoners, we wouldn't need any of this. It just wouldn't be necessary," Jernigan said while giving a tour of the huge facility he oversees in Del Rio. "This is a federal court city, and there's a need to house federal prisoners here."
Two prisons specializing in federal detainees are going up along the Texas-Mexico border southeast of here -- a 654-bed unit in Eagle Pass and a 1,500-bed jail nearing completion in Laredo. Like the Val Verde lockup, these facilities are run by the Geo Group, formerly known as Wackenhut, which last year posted its best financial results ever, the company said.
Even the largest jail for illegal immigrants, the Willacy County Jail, is too small to accommodate federal demands. Located in Raymondville -- nicknamed "Prisonville" -- it is expanding capacity from 2,000 to 3,000 beds this year, officials say.
The detention boom hasn't been done on the cheap.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it costs $88 a day to house a prisoner in privately run jails.
Nationwide, the average number of prisoners the agency holds daily has increased 44 percent since 2001, figures show. Meanwhile, its budget for detention and removal operations has more than doubled in the past four years, rising from $959 million in fiscal 2004 to $2.4 billion in 2008, according to agency data.
Securing the porous southern border became an urgent national priority after the 9-11 attacks. The number of Border Patrol agents on duty, for example, will have doubled by the time President Bush leaves office, to 18,000, according to federal officials.
But Bush's proposed immigration overhaul, which would have given guest worker permits to certain Mexican laborers, collapsed in Congress last year. That paved the way for workplace raids, an increase in fines for people caught hiring illegal migrants, an expansion of electronic worker verification programs and a series of anti-immigrant measures enacted by state legislatures.
Critics say the get-tough policies have been extraordinarily costly, both in financial and human terms. The U.S. already locks up far more people than any other country per capita, according to the London-based International Centre for Prison Studies. And a recent Washington Post investigation revealed medical negligence and substandard healthcare in detention facilities that hold foreign nationals, prompting congressional inquiries.
Judy Greene, an analyst at Justice Strategies, a nonprofit group that studies incarceration alternatives, compared the repressive measures to the war on drugs. She said other approaches, including supervised release and electronic monitoring, are effective, more humane and far less expensive.
"Throwing money at the problem and then claiming that temporary gains are total victories is futile," she said. "I think Americans will come to see this over time, just like they did with the drug war, which didn't have the advertised effect."
Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, which provides legal aid to many undocumented workers, said the crackdown is doomed to fail because it doesn't address the root causes of illegal immigration. He blamed a massive "economic dislocation" in Mexico, where he said free-trade policies have devastated rural agriculture and sent field hands fleeing.
"I think we could lean on Mexico and tell them there's no financial aid, reciprocity, any of that stuff, unless Mexico makes progress toward democratizing its own economy," Harrington said. "Without that, we're going to continue what we're doing now, and that's investing an endless amount of money into a Band-Aid that's just not going to hold."
Ricardo Ahuja, the Mexican consul in Del Rio, said migrants are already breaking through the physical and legal barriers.
"They're finding other routes," Ahuja said. "It's a question of supply and demand. If there weren't jobs waiting for them in the U.S., they wouldn't cross."
But supporters of the crackdown say that the data prove it's working and that the alternative is to suspend the rule of law on the border. U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, is pushing Congress to expand the zero-tolerance polices along the entire border.
"This has an unbelievable deterrent effect," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said during a recent news conference. "When people who cross the border illegally are brought to face the reality that they were committing a crime, even if it's just a misdemeanor, that has a huge impact on their willingness to try again."
Spending is up
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's spending for detention and removal of illegal immigrants has soared 148 percent since 2004.
Fiscal year DRO budget
2004 $959,232
2005 $1,218,391
2006 $1,645,370
2007 $1,984,345
2008 $2,381,401
Source: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Apprehensions are down
Since the Border Patrol began Operation Streamline in 2005, arrests of illegal immigrants in the Del Rio sector have dropped 66 percent.
Del Rio sector arrests U.S.- Mexico border arrests
2007 22,920 858,638
2006 42,636 1,071,972
2005 68,506 1,171,396
2004 53,794 1,139,282
Source: Customs and Border Protection; fiscal year apprehension figures
jroot@star-telegram.com
JAY ROOT, 512-476-4294
http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/662631.html
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