By James Pinkerton
The Houston Chronicle
LAREDO, Texas — After pleading guilty to entering the country illegally, the Mexican immigrant from Veracruz told a federal judge here last week he came to the U.S. to earn money to pay for his mother’s funeral.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to pay off funeral expenses, or take care of a sick family member,” explained U.S. Magistrate Diana Saldaña, referring to the plight of another immigrant. ''When you cross the Rio Grande, you’re going to be spending time in prison if the Border Patrol finds you — that’s the bottom line.”
The frank courtroom exchange has become a daily occurrence since Oct. 30, when the Border Patrol launched Operation Streamline-Laredo, a zero-tolerance campaign that prosecutes, jails and deports nearly every adult illegal immigrant that border agents catch.
The controversial operation has jammed local jails to capacity, strained the staff of the federal public defender’s office and sparked charges that immigrants’ due process rights are being violated. But it has been applauded by those favoring strict enforcement of immigration laws.
Before the crackdown, agents with the Laredo patrol sector routinely allowed illegal immigrants from Mexico to return home voluntarily. And a lack of detention space resulted in a ''catch-and-release” policy that allowed non-Mexican illegal immigrants to post bond pending a hearing, but few showed up for their court dates.
But at the Laredo federal courthouse last week, a mere two weeks after the program began, scores of ordinary people shared the halls where crooked officials, drug kingpins and human traffickers are brought to justice.They included bricklayers, construction workers, dishwashers and waitresses, all snared by agents after crossing the Rio Grande illegally.
The immigrants, in the same rumpled clothing they wore when arrested, were escorted up to the judge’s bench in groups of 18 or 20. After a Border Patrol officer read a charge that applied to the entire group, each immigrant called out ''Culpable” — the Spanish word for guilty.
Limited legal resources
The judge repeatedly warned the immigrants — some of whom had been detained up to 10 times but not charged — that an arrest for a second offense could result in a more serious felony charge and a longer jail sentence.
“This whole thing about them catching you and sending you back isn’t going to happen anymore,” the magistrate warned.
During one morning session, it took about three hours for 79 immigrants to make their first appearance before the magistrate, plead guilty and receive sentences ranging from time served to 45 days in jail. Most of them pleaded to illegal entry, a misdemeanor.
“If you ask me, they don’t come over here to commit crimes,” said Francisco Valcarcel, an assistant federal public defender who represented most of the immigrants in the session. ''I don’t think this should be an enforcement priority. Families are being torn apart.”
The immigrants are being detained crossing the border or are caught elsewhere in the Laredo area.
At the U.S. District Clerk’s office in Laredo, deputy clerk Ben Mendoza said the magistrate’s docket has doubled since Streamline began. ''I’m getting calls constantly from families about where their relatives are being held,” Mendoza said.
Arthur Thomas, deputy U.S. marshal in Laredo, said beds in Laredo jails are full, forcing immigrants to be sent as far away as Waco and East Texas.
Kathleen Walker, an El Paso immigration attorney and president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the zero-tolerance operation and the limited legal representation available to immigrants denies them due process, especially those with potential claims of asylum or U.S. citizenship.
“We are throwing away the Constitution for expediency, and we’re reducing our security by not prosecuting crimes that deserve more attention, felonies like narcotic and human trafficking,” she said, referring to the crowded magistrate’s docket.
But many applaud the new emphasis on enforcement at the nation’s busiest inland port.
“We’re pleased because basically they’re enforcing the law,” said Louise Whiteford, president of the Houston-based Texans For Immigration Reform. ''It’s long overdue.”
Border Patrol officials in Laredo say it is too early to gauge the operation’s effectiveness and declined a request for conviction statistics.
Laredo is the third Border Patrol sector on the Southwest border to implement zero-tolerance, and so far it is under way only in the metropolitan areas of Laredo.
Ramon Rivera, an assistant Border Patrol Chief at agency headquarters in Washington D.C., said the program will be assessed in a couple of months after the number of apprehensions is compared to the same period last year.
In the Yuma sector in Arizona, Operation Streamline eventually resulted in a 68 percent reduction in apprehensions between fiscal years 2006 and 2007, and during the same period the Del Rio sector registered a 46 percent decline, Rivera said.
Hoping word spreads
During a tour of the river front last week, the challenges of enforcement were evident. Squads of Border Patrol agents, guided by surveillance cameras on observation towers, played a cat-and-mouse game with small groups of immigrants crossing the Rio Grande. After reaching the Texas side, the immigrants hid in impenetrable stands of cane lining the riverbank for miles, waiting to walk into adjoining neighborhoods and jump into a smuggler’s car.
“If you were going to completely shut it down, you’d have to establish some kind of buffer, 100 or 200 yards from the river, and clear it all,” said Border Patrol supervisor Jesus Chan. ''But that’s not going to happen.”
Instead, they hope immigrants like Sylvia Licona Garcia will warn their friends about the new mandatory jail time. She was one of 70 immigrants, some from as far away as Kosovo and Sri Lanka, who were in holding cells last week at the Border Patrol’s north Laredo station.
Heard, but didn’t believe it
Licona, a 21-year-old Veracruz native, said she heard about the operation before arranging for human traffickers to transport her to Houston. The price was $1,500, and another $1,000 for a flight from Houston to Washington state where she planned to rejoin her husband.
“I heard about it, but I didn’t believe it,” said Licona, as she awaited deportation at the detention area inside the station. ''But now, after being locked up in jail for two days, I believe it.”
After swimming the Rio Grande, she and two friends were picked up by smugglers. They left Laredo and drove toward San Antonio. They were quickly stopped, but the smugglers jumped from the moving car, which crashed.
In the same holding area was Jaime Pinto Aguilar, a 38-year-old Nuevo Laredo man who waded the Rio Grande on Nov. 11. Pinto, who has a college degree in international commerce, said he had been unable to find a job for the past four months.
“I told my wife I had to go,” he said. “Christmas is coming, and I’m not going to leave my children without anything, and there were bills.”
Instead of finding a job washing dishes in a Laredo restaurant relatives told him about, Pinto spent four days in jail.
“I will not come back illegally, not for anything in the world,” Pinto said. ''I was in jail with a bunch of felons.”
Pinto’s wife, his mother and sister Anna Maria Pinto watched him receive his sentence in court.
They were elated when he returned home Thursday, and predicted news of the crackdown will spread in Mexico. But they were not sure of its effect on the flow of illegal immigration.
“People will hear of these cases, but in this community every day people are crossing,” said Anna Maria Pinto. ''Immigrants are trying to get across to live the American dream, to find a job, to build a better life. But the consequences are very grave.”
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle