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What is Operation Streamline?
Operation Streamline, a policy begun in 2005, mandates that nearly all undocumented immigrants crossing the Southern border in certain areas be prosecuted through the federal criminal justice system, a departure from previous practices when most immigration cases were handled exclusively within the civil immigration system.
Operation Streamline has exposed undocumented border-crossers crossing to unprecedented rates of incarceration; overburdened the federal criminal justice system; and added enormous costs to the American taxpayer while providing a boon to the for-profit private prison industry.
Media on Operation Streamline
- "A 'maddening' system, from courtrooms to shelters" Tom Roberts, National Catholic Reporter, July 1, 2011
- "Border Convictions: High Stakes, Unknown Price" Ted Robbins, September 14, 2010
- "Border Patrol Program Raises Due Process Concerns" Ted Robbins, NPR, September 13, 2010
- "Claims Of Border Program Success Are Unproven" Ted Robbins, NPR, September 13, 2010
- "Grinding Justice: Operation Streamline costs millions, tramples the Constitution, treats migrants like cattle, and doesn’t work." Stephen Lemons, Village Voice, October 20, 2010
- "Operation Streamline: Border enforcement that doesn't work," Joanna Lydgate, LA Times, May 14, 2010
- "Program Prosecutes Illegal Immigrants Before Deporting Them" Lauren Gambino, Latino America, News21.com, August 2010
- "Report: Criminalizing Undocumented Boosts For-profit Prisons," Khalil Abdullah, New America Media, August 6, 2010
- "We're All Parasites.' This is Operation Streamline," Max Blumenthal, February 15, 2010
Reports on Operation Streamline
- "Arrested on Entry: Operation Streamline and the Prosecution of Immigration Crimes" Donald Kerwin and Kristen McCabe, Migration Policy Institute, April 2010
- "Assembly Line Justice: A Review of Operations Streamline" by the Warren Institute of the U.C. Berkeley School of Law, January, 2010
- "Operation Streamline and its Effects on the Courts and Law Enforcement on the Border" National Immigration Forum, May 11, 2010
- "Operation Streamline and its Effects on the Courts and Law Enforcement on the Border" National Immigration Forum, May 11, 2010
Author Archives: tbuentello
TRAC Collects Data on Immigration Case Backlogs and Wait Times
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reports immigration case backlogs reached a record 247,922 by mid-June of this year (“Immigration Case Backlog Continues to Grow”, TRAC 2010). The report also shows that these cases wait in the Immigration Courts of the … Continue reading
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Final in NPR Op. Streamline Series Addresses Costs
In the third and last of NPR’s stellar series on Operation Streamline, Ted Robbins addresses lawmakers wanting to expand the program when nobody knows how much it costs, except that those costs are staggering (“Border Convictions: High Stakes, Unknown Price” … Continue reading
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Tagged Arizona, Eric Holder, federal courts, Janet Napolitano, Jon Kyle, NPR, Obama, Operation Stramline, re-entry, Ted Robbins, Tuscon
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Second in NPR series rebuts DHS justifications for Operation Streamline
On Monday afternoon, Ted Robbins followed up on his much-needed review of due process concerns in the criminal justice system with an impressive critique of the three justifications Border Patrol continually uses to defend Operation Streamline (“Claims of Border Patrol … Continue reading
