Border Patrol Program Raises Due Process Concerns

This is the first in a three-part series that takes an in-depth look at a little-known program that is pushing the boundaries of the American justice system along the U.S.-Mexico border: Operation Streamline. NPR's Southwest correspondent Ted Robbins has spent the past three months analyzing court data and documents on the program.

On one recent typical day, Federal Magistrate Judge Karen Molzen's courtroom in Las Cruces was packed with 45 defendants. She had to figure out how to fit them in the courtroom, suggesting the jury box as possible space.

On one recent typical day, Federal Magistrate Judge Karen Molzen's courtroom in Las Cruces was packed with 45 defendants. She had to figure out how to fit them in the courtroom, suggesting the jury box as possible space.

The defendants all pleaded in Spanish: "Culpable." "Guilty."

If anyone wanted to fight the charge, they'd spend at least a month in jail waiting for a trial. Molzen sentenced the defendants to time already served — six to 10 days from when they were caught. Everyone now had a criminal record. And the judge gave them a stern warning that they'll face a longer sentence if caught again.

She did recommend that two people not be deported because they had family in the United States legally. She told the rest: "You will be deported from the United States, and with that deportation and this criminal conviction, it will be difficult or impossible for you to enter the United States lawfully in the future."

This daily, systematic mass sentencing under Operation Streamline is unlike anything in U.S. judicial history.

Read/Listen to Part 1 of 3.