Sometime between June 18th and 20th, Cidonio Torres-Reyes
crossed the US Mexico border and began the perilous journey across the Arizona
desert. On June 21, Mr. Torres-Reyes was apprehended by US Customs and Border
Patrol (CBP). He was detained and charged with illegal entry (8 USC 1325) and he
was recommended to have his case heard through Operation Streamline.
Operation Streamline is a part of the overall US government
immigration policy of Prevention through Deterrence.
The central idea behind Prevention through Deterrence is
that by making the border crossing as difficult and dangerous as possible and
facing the threat of criminalisation and family separation if caught by CBP,
migrants will decide that the rewards are not worth the risk. This policy was
inaugurated by the Clinton Administration in the mid-1990s. Knowing the havoc
that NAFTA would wreak on Central American small farmers and businesses, the US
government took steps to shut down its southern border to people at the same time
as they opened it up to corporations. The resulting border fences at towns such
as Nogales, El Paso and Sasabe, forced migrants into the harsh climate of the
deserts in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Subsequent administrations from Bush II to Obama to Trump
have expanded the scope of Prevention through Deterrence to include
militarization of border towns, expanded border surveillance and personnel,
family separation and the criminalisation of migrants, including through Operation
Streamline.
Operation Streamline was launched in 2005 under the Bush II
administration. The program fast tracks migrants through the court system by
hearing multiple cases together, often prosecuting more than 75 migrants per
day, 5 days a week.
Defendants are bought into the court room in groups of 6 to
8. Each defendant is assigned a pro-bono lawyer who explains the process to
them. Each lawyer will represent one defendant in each group, resulting in 1
lawyer representing 10 to 12 defendants during each hearing. In addition to
representing multiple defendants, due to the fast track nature of Operation
Streamline, often defendants are apprehended by CBP only 1 or 2 days before
they appear in court. Therefore, each lawyer will only have 30 minutes to an
hour to speak with each defendant they are representing before the hearing
begins.
Operation Streamline handles 2 types of immigration cases.
First, illegal entry (8 USC 1325) is a criminal misdemeanor with a maximum
sentence of 6 months. Second, illegal re-entry (8 USC 1326) is a felony
punishable by up to 2 years in prison.
The defendants are lined up before the judge and given head
phones to listen and respond to a Spanish interpreter. Interpreters in other
Central American indigenous languages are not provided, despite Spanish being a
second or third language for many defendants. Through the interpreter the judge
informs the defendants of their right to trial and then asks a series of
questions designed to achieve the bare minimum in showing that the US
government has upheld the defendant’s legal rights and elicit a final response
of “culpable” (guilty) from each defendant before passing sentence.
On June 22, 2018, I attended, Operation Streamline in Tucson, AZ as a volunteer with No More Deaths. Our goal in observing the hearing was to identify any defendants with physical injuries and note any requests made for asylum and follow up with immigrant’s rights activists within the legal and medical communities. Mr. Torres-Reyes was one of the 75 defendants processed that day. He did not stand out, there was nothing defining or unusual about him, he did not appear to have any physical injuries and he did not request asylum. As is usual for illegal entry cases, the judge sentenced him to time served and ordered his deportation.
I returned to the desert on Sunday, June 24 with No More
Deaths for my second week as a volunteer.
Friday, June 29 bought me and my fellow volunteers back to
the Arizona courthouse. The judge processed the illegal entry cases and then
moved on to illegal re-entry cases. When a migrant is charged with illegal
re-entry they are strongly encouraged to accept a plea bargain. They plead
guilty to the original misdemeanor charge of illegal entry (1325) and serve a
sentence of 30 to 180 days in prison, in return the US government drops the
illegal re-entry (1326) charge, which carries a sentence of 2 years. After
serving their time in a private prison they will then be deported.
When the third group of defendants charged with illegal
re-entry were called into the courtroom the judge called Cidonio Torres-Reyes.
I recognized the name immediately and rummaged through my papers for the
defendant list from the previous week.
Piecing together a timeline, presumably, Mr. Torres-Reyes
was deported to Nogales on Saturday, June 23. Between Sunday, June 24 and
Tuesday, June 26 he crossed the border again. He was apprehended by CBP on
Wednesday, June 27 and pushed through Operation Streamline again on Friday,
June 29.
Mr. Torres-Reyes was sentenced to 75 days in prison. His
sentence should end around September 10, 2018, when he will be turned back over
to ICE for deportation.
I have never spoken to Mr. Torres-Reyes, 3 weeks later my
memory of his features is hazy, and I would be hard pressed to pick him out of
a crowd. I have a deep admiration for his strength and fortitude in attempting the
same dangerous journey twice within 2 weeks. Every day I say his name, so that
he knows he is not forgotten and so that I do not forget that the victims of
Prevention through Deterrence and Operation Streamline are not numbers, they
are individuals with determination, goals, dreams and names!
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