culpable

On February 11th, YAGMexico sat in silence in the public viewing gallery of the Tucson, Arizona US District Court. We watched 46 migrants be criminally sentenced in 45 minutes through proceedings called Operation Streamline. We listened to 46 migrants plead culpable to charges of illegal entry or reentry after deportation. Almost three months later, I'm honestly still shocked by what we witnessed. Here are some facts and feelings regarding Operation Streamline.

Plaque outside the Tucson, AZ US District Court

FACTS:

• Operation Streamline is a program of en masse, fast-track criminal prosecution of immigrants in federal courts along many sectors of the US/Mexico border. 
• Operation Streamline began in Del Rio, Texas in 2005 and was expanded to Tucson in 2008. At the height of the program, Streamline was operating in six of the nine sectors on the southern US border with Mexico, in every state on that border but California. It continues to operate in Tucson, Del Rio, and Laredo sectors today. 
• Statutes criminalizing illegal entry and re-entry were passed as part of the McCarran-Walter Act in 1952, but were rarely enforced before 1986. The vast majority of migrants caught crossing the border without authorization before 2004 were returned or deported through the civil immigration system without criminal prosecution. 
• Prosecutions climbed slowly throughout the 1990's and skyrocketed beginning in about 2004, largely as a result of Operation Streamline. 
• Approximately 700,000 people have been prosecuted for illegal entry or re-entry since Operation Streamline began. Almost 70,000 migrants were criminally prosecuted at the border during the federal fiscal year 2015 alone. 
• The US spent over $5.5 billion dollars incarcerating criminally prosecuted migrants between 2006 and 2011. Private prison companies made a profit of $246,561 per day for incarcerating migrants on criminal charges in 2011 alone. 
• The two largest US private prison companies CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) and GEO Group inc, received more than $1.4 billion in revenue from federal government contracts in 2011. 
• CCA and individuals closely affiliated with that corporation have provided Arizona Senator, John McCain with over $30,000 in campaign donations during the course of his career. John McCain has long championed Operation Streamline as an effective facet of the US border policy of "prevention through deterrence"
• Latin@s now make up more than half of all those sentenced to federal prison, despite only comprising 17% of the country's population, due in large part to the criminalization of immigration. 
• In Tucson, up to 70 migrants can appear in court in one hearing lasting less than two hours. All defendants receive between 30 to 180 days. All defendants are shackled during the court proceedings. 
• Prior to the court proceedings, the migrants meet with a public defender who explains the charges, describes the offer of a plea agreement, and conveys the migrant's options. In Tucson, migrants may have up to 30 minutes of one on one time with their lawyer. 
• As a result of the en masse hearings and severely limited time with legal counsel, Operation Streamline raises serious and troubling questions of breeches in constitutionally protected due process.  
• Streamlined people bear lifelong criminal records and severely damaged chances of ever being able to return to the United States with valid immigration status. 

FEELINGS:

• I felt nauseated when the first group of migrants stood before the judge and it was announced that they were detained near Douglas, Arizona on February 9th. 
• I felt embarrassed knowing that my group was touring the Douglas, AZ Border Patrol station while they were detained. While we stood squinting in the sun looking in BP's state of the art ATVs and trucks-equipped for optimal human detection, they sat inside holding cells uncertain of what would await them. 
• I felt my heart sink remembering the words of Officer Cody, "we can't take you in the holding cells because they are occupied."
• I felt suffocated in my own privilege, knowing that our feet had trod along the same route--from the border wall, to the BP station, to the Tucson US District court. Mine sat freely, theirs sat shackled. 
• I felt anxious during the few second lag time between the judge's words and the translator's response. 
• I felt disillusioned that my four years of studying political systems and processes left me with no explanation for these crooked proceedings. 
• I felt powerless as the proceedings continued undeterred. As I watched more young migrants shuffle out of the court room sentenced to 30, 60, 90, 180 days seemingly indiscriminately. 
• I felt hopeful when one young man asked the court to allow him to serve his sentence in LA, to be closer to his daughter-a US citizen. 
• I felt angry at the past eleven years in which I'd lived in blissful ignorance of this process and bastardization of our legal system. 
• I felt even more disgusted by the concept of private, for-profit prisons as I watched each group of migrants exit the courtroom, in chains, as if they had price tags on their backs. Sold to forces of insatiable greed. 
• I felt called to bear witness to this injustice. 
• I felt called to share this experience. 
• I felt called to honor the 46 migrants who were convicted, who were labeled as culpable. 

The facts presented here were complied from presentations given to our group in Tucson, AZ by organizations such as the End Streamline Coalition and No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes. Learn more by visiting their websites:

http://derechoshumanosaz.net/projects/coalition-work/the-criminalization-of-migration/end-streamline-coalition/

http://forms.nomoredeaths.org/en/