To: President Donald Trump, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-1), Sen. Martha McSally (AZ-2), The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
End Operation Streamline Now!
Operation Streamline is a Bush Administration program implemented in 2005 ordering federal criminal charges for every person who crosses the border illegally. Illegal entry into the United States has always been a civil matter; now the politicians are spending $10,000.00 a day to criminalize immigrants while they let the real criminals (drug runners and human traffickers) go free. It has to stop!
Why is this important?
Stop spending Department of Justice dollars to criminalize the poorest of the poor and most vulnerable people seeking the American Dream. While DOJ spends $10,000.00 a day prosecuting people who enter the United States without permission, the Courts have to make deals with drug runners and human traffickers. In December 2009, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Operation Streamline’s group hearings in Tucson violate federal law.
Courts have ruled that the assembly-line hearings in Operation Streamline violate Rule 11 on Due Process Requirements and the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution on Probable Cause. New prisons have been built in 3 states to handle the high rate of "convictions." Private prison corporations have gained $5.5 BILLION since 2005 for housing these voiceless immigrants in deplorable conditions; indeed they are the only people who profit from Operation Streamline. Yet, Operation Streamline continues processing 400 to 650 persons a day in 2 -3 hour court sessions, Monday through Friday in Yuma and Tucson, AZ; Las Cruces, NM; El Paso, Laredo, Del Rio, Brownsville and McAllen, TX.
And now, there is discussion of expanding Operation Streamline from its current 8 locations to all locations on the southern border of the United States BEFORE comprehensive immigration reform can get started.