Christian Century continues critical coverage of Op. Streamline in religious press

Bob Libal's picture July 15, 2011
by Bob Libal

Last week, we reported on the excellent National Catholic Reporter article on Operation Streamline that included some harsh words on the program from Tuscon federal magistrate Bernardo P. Velasco.  That story followed the Vatican’s official objection to Operation Streamline in front of the United Nations last year.

Last month, we had missed this blog article by Amy Frykholm in the Christian Century (“Assembly Line Justice,” June 30th)

Since it began in 2005, Operation Streamline has turned deportation cases previously handled exclusively by ICE into federal criminal cases that introduce thousands of people to our prisons every year. The ACLU has raised concerns about the program’s criminalization of impoverished people whose crime is crossing a border and seeking work. The group has called for the suspension of Operation Streamline until its costs, both financial and human, can be better calculated and understood. The chief federal judge of Arizona has asked that her caseload be called a “judicial emergency” so that she can bring in more resources. The 9th District Court agreed.

The program’s defenders say that it sends a strong message to people who cross the U.S. border illegally, and that it therefore is helpful to them–as well as to the border patrol agents who regularly arrest people in Arizona’s treacherous deserts. Other observers find both the spectacle of justice and the pain of individuals troubling. An organization called “Operation Streamline Watch” argues that if federal policy met its stated goal of “zero tolerance” for people who cross the border illegally, the caseload in the Tucson federal courthouse would go from the roughly 200 a day to more than 1,000.

If this happened, prisoners would need to be “processed” in groups of 40 instead of eight. We need to address the fundamental puzzle and colossal mess that is U.S. immigration policy. In the meantime, this ongoing assembly-line justice does little good.

We’ll keep you posted on continued opposition to Streamline amongst faith groups and of critical coverage in the religious press.

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Operation Streamline

Crossing the border was once a matter for civil immigration courts. Now, every day in federal criminal courts along the Southwest border, hundreds of mostly destitute Latino and indigenous Latin American migrants are shackled, charged, convicted and sentenced en masse under the policy called “Operation Streamline.” The program has proven to be a boon for private prisons by funneling tens of thousands of immigrants into federal prisons every year. Through research and advocacy, Grassroots Leadership is fighting for and end to this program.