By Alicia A. Caldwell
DEL RIO, Texas—The Trump administration has curtailed a key component of its “zero tolerance” immigration policy, no longer charging first-time illegal border crossers with a crime along a busy stretch of West Texas.
Prosecutions of single migrant adults caught crossing the border for the first time in and around Del Rio, Texas, were suspended in February amid lack of jail space, a U.S. Border Patrol official. The policy change hasn’t been previously reported.
Instead of being charged with a misdemeanor, most single migrants, or adults traveling without children, apprehended crossing the border illegally for the first time will face swift deportation without criminal charges. The official said Border Patrol has ceased charging those illegal immigrants amid the increasing number of families crossing the border and seeking asylum and an uptick in other criminal cases that have left them with no detention space.
Misdemeanor prosecutions will resume if more detention space becomes available, the border official added.
Under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy announced last year, most single migrant adults crossing the border illegally for the first time are charged with a misdemeanor that can carry a brief jail sentence. A misdemeanor conviction allows them to be charged with a felony for a second illegal crossing, which could result in a lengthy prison term. The threat of extended imprisonment is meant to deter illegal immigrants from returning.
Felony prosecutions for illegal immigrants apprehended more than once or previously deported are continuing in Del Rio, the official said.
There is no indication that misdemeanor prosecutions have slowed or been suspended in other Border Patrol sectors.
Ruthie Epstein, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, said while her organization hasn’t closely monitored priority shifts in each border sector, prosecuting border crossers is “a massive waste of government resources.” She said successive administrations have used prosecutions to deter migrants from coming to the U.S., but there is little evidence the efforts have worked.
Single migrant adults caught crossing the border in Del Rio, about 160 miles west of San Antonio, have faced criminal prosecution since President George W. Bush’s administration launched Operation Streamline in 2005 to help curb illegal border crossings in the area.
Border agents there made about 68,000 arrests during the 2005 budget year. Arrests haven’t eclipsed 25,000 a year since 2007. Between the start of the federal fiscal year in October and February, 12,650 migrants were arrested in Del Rio, compared with 5,734 during the same period a year earlier. The number traveling as families skyrocketed to 5,569 from 933.
The Trump administration launched a zero-tolerance effort along the entire Mexico border in April 2018. Initially, the policy included parents caught crossing the border with their children, which resulted in more than 2,500 children being separated from their parents before family separations were halted in mid-June.
In the earliest stages of the zero-tolerance policy last spring and summer, many federal courtrooms in the Southwest were jammed with criminal cases—primarily misdemeanor charges against people caught crossing the border for the first time. Most pleaded guilty and were sentenced to time served before moving to deportation proceedings.
The suspension of misdemeanor prosecutions in Del Rio is another setback for the Trump administration in its efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. Last week, Border Patrol agents in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley stopped passing off some families to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be detained, also due to crowding concerns. The agency has since expanded that practice to other areas including Del Rio, San Diego, El Paso and Yuma, Ariz., a separate Border Patrol official said Wednesday.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Wednesday that a “breaking point” has arrived as the number of families crossing the border overwhelm his agency’s resources. He warned that more deaths of migrants in government custody were likely as a result.
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