TUCSON — They shuffle into the courtroom in shackles, still wearing the dust-covered clothes and shoes from when they crossed the desert into the U.S. from Mexico.
The 70 illegal immigrants, mostly men and mostly in their 20s and 30s, fill the 16-seat jury box and seven rows of wooden benches normally reserved for the public in Tucson’s gleaming federal courthouse. The courtroom is expansive, with a regally high ceiling, and is filled with the pungent smell of dried sweat.
In only an hour or so, the dozens of immigrants will agree to plead guilty and be sentenced in a process that could play out for months for most federal defendants.
The scene offers a window into a federal immigration enforcement effort that is pushing the limits of the U.S. justice system, overwhelming federal judges and escalating the ranks of Latinos sent to prison.
Expedited court hearings along the border are a major force driving a seismic demographic shift in who is being sent to federal prison. Statistics released last week revealed that Latinos now make up nearly half of all people sentenced for federal felony crimes, a number swollen by immigration offenses. In comparison, Latinos last year made up 16 percent of the total U.S. population.
Sentences for felony immigration crimes, which include illegal crossing as well as other crimes such as alien smuggling, accounted for about 87 percent of the increase in the number of Latinos sent to prison over the past decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Sentencing Commission data.
The trend has divided lawmakers and officials in the courts and along the border. Some politicians think the en masse hearings should be expanded to deter illegal immigration.
Others question whether the system affects people seeking to cross the border, while some contend the programs distract prosecutors from pursuing more serious crimes.
“There is a use of criminal justice resources that doesn’t make sense. . . . Are we just running numbers so it appears we’re doing more on immigration and drug offenses, or are we doing anything worthwhile?” said Chicago federal Judge Ruben Castillo, who retired from serving on the U.S. Sentencing Commission for 11 years last December. “My question would be, ‘Are we spending the money the right way?’ and there I would have a lot of concerns.”
Some of the expedited border court hearings are part of a program called Operation Streamline that began in 2005 in Del Rio, Texas, and soon spread to other Border Patrol sectors.
Operation Streamline and other fast-track programs speed illegal immigrants through accelerated legal proceedings, where most guilty pleas come in Spanish and thousands of Mexican citizens end up locked up each year for entering the country without papers.
Prison time
6,513 People sent to prison in 2000 for the primary crime of unlawfully entering or remaining in the U.S.
19,910 People sent to prison in 2010 for unlawfully entering or remaining in the U.S.
