The Border Patrol program called Operation Streamline pushes immigrants caught entering the country illegally through the federal court system — at speeds unheard of before. They exit convicted criminals. The program raises concerns about due process and adequate representation. And no one can say for sure how much it costs.
A spokesman for the Border Patrol says "no budget or monies are associated" with Operation Streamline. But Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who's in charge of the Border Patrol, says "it is a very expensive program per head because it does implicate use of the judicial system."
"Particularly in the mornings, we'll have as many as 200 prisoners in here," he says.
Every morning a courtroom becomes a makeshift jail. The courtroom is filled with small tables where lawyers sit across from their clients. Others meet in the pews normally reserved for spectators.
The prisoners in the courtroom were picked up under Operation Streamline. They were charged with entering the country illegally, a misdemeanor. They'll be arraigned, convicted, and sentenced in groups by the afternoon. Every weekday 70 people are processed this way. That's on top of all the court's other cases. The Border Patrol would like to increase that to 100. Others want to double or triple it. Kondo has to figure out how. One plan would have two separate Operation Streamline proceedings running at the same time.
But even tripling the number of Operation Streamline defendants wouldn't come close to meeting the program's stated goal of zero tolerance: prosecuting everyone caught crossing illegally. In the Tucson sector, that would currently be nearly 1,000 prosecutions every weekday — a quarter-million people a year.
Read/Listen to Part 3 of 3.
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