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Operation Streamline: good use of our money?

Operation Streamline is an initiative that takes immigrants caught entering the U.S. illegally and pushes them through the federal courts quickly. There are currently 8 federal jurisdictions in the south of AZ, NM, and TX that are part of Operation Streamline. Sometimes these courts will convict up to 100 people a day.

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Issues of concern:

Is this program actually deterring illegal immigration? Doesn't seem so. NPR interviewed a number of individuals who stated they were 1) unfamiliar with Operation Streamline despite having seen a judge (*ahem* cultural competency), 2) likely to return to the U.S. to find work.

Is this program making our country safer? No evidence to show it has.

Is this program allowing our Border Patrol to focus on more violent crimes? Conflicting evidence that it has. One judge reports seeing an increase in violent crime cases, but the actual numbers do not reflect that. In reality, most of these courts have seen a decrease in violent crime cases, and the only courts that have seen an increase in violent crime cases are in CA, where Operation Streamline does not operate.

Due process: are people getting proper representation? Most likely not when the process is so speedy and oftentimes the cases are seen in groups at a time, rather than individually. And let's not talk about cultural competency, i.e. proper translation, communicating information that assures understanding rather than just doing it for the sake of doing it).

How much does the program cost? No one knows - not Border Patrol, DHS, DOJ, or the lawmakers - but it appears to be pretty expensive b/c DOJ has to provide transportation, housing, food, interpreters, defense attorneys, courtrooms, clerks, judges. Multiply that by at least 50 individuals a day (if not more), times 8 locations.

My thoughts: This NPR story makes it difficult to defend Operation Streamline, despite the Operation's original goals of 1) reducing the cost of deporting undocumented immigrants by making the process more efficient/streamlined, and 2) in effect, make our country safer. I'm all for efficiency and better use of our federal funds, but is this the right way to do it? There is no evidence to support sustaining this Operation.

Furthermore, I'm already biased in that I don't think our south border operations are effective or a good use of our money anyway, and this is just extra evidence for that belief. However, what do we do about illegal immigration? I mean, it's illegal, right? And there is reason for having closed, nonporous borders; otherwise, we'd have all sorts of people entering and leaving our country without any type of accountability or protection. We are a closed country, and in some ways it does make us safer. We can screen people for diseases, we can ensure everyone entering has proper documentation so that the government can collect necessary information and track trends, we can theoretically ensure that our economy doesn't become over-saturated with residents without the requisite infrastructure (e.g. housing, employment, healthcare, etc. etc.), we can theoretically ensure a more fair immigration process for citizens of all countries, rather than just those bordering the U.S., among other reasons.

But how successful have our south border protection protocols been? And how much has that cost us? And why do we need such strict border controls along Mexico anyway? Is that making our country stronger? What would be the cost to our economy if we allowed/legalized more work permits so that more Mexicans and Central Americans could work in the U.S.? If we somehow were able to better support Mexico in improving its economy, would that be a better use of our money so that Mexicans want to stay in Mexico to work, rather than crossing over to the U.S.?

Lots of questions that I don't know the answer to. I do know, though, that we have the obligation to treat people humanely and fairly.

#US-Mex #justice #immigration