By BOB CHRISTIE
Associated Press Writer
CHANDLER, Arizona- A program that allows American law-enforcement officials to turn over immigrant smuggling suspects to Mexican authorities for prosecution will be expanded throughout Arizona.
Mexican officials, speaking at a conference of top law enforcement officials in Chandler, Arizona, Thursday, said the expansion of Operation Oasis will help increase actual prosecutions of smugglers.
The operation already is up and running as a pilot project in California and the Yuma, Arizona, area.
Mexican authorities will be able to prosecute the so-called “coyotes” because their legal system doesn’t require victims to be present at trial. A deposition or sworn complaint is all that is needed.
The decision to expand the program in Arizona, and eventually across the southwestern border states, is a major change in policy by the Mexican government, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said.
“They are recognizing that the coyotes are well organized, highly sophisticated criminals, who are very often kidnapping (immigrants), putting them at incredible risk or even making them into sex slaves,” Goddard said. “This Oasis program is the first I’ve heard as a bi-national effort to strike back at the criminals who facilitate people crossing the border without papers.”
High-ranking Mexican government officials spoke about the expanded program Thursday at a meeting that brought together the top prosecutors of six Mexican states with the attorneys general of New Mexico, Utah and Arizona and representatives of the California and Texas attorneys general.
“As you know, the smugglers have stopped being the friend of the immigrant,” said Juan Bosco Marti Ascencio, an official with Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “We’re working to try to attack the smuggling of individuals.”
A record 415 people have died trying to cross the border illegally from Mexico in the past 11 months, surpassing the previous high of 383 recorded in fiscal year 2000, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.
Authorities blame the death toll on coyotes who drive the immigrants across the border and then set them off to trek across the desert to a pickup spot.