Operation Streamline: Injustice in Action!

• Operation Streamline: Costs and Consequences
  
• How Immigration Reform Could Expand Incarceration of Immigrants
• Video Interview with Streamline Defendant

Take Action Against Operation Streamline

Tell McCain, Flake, Congress to End Operation Streamline

Senator John McCain: Main: (202) 224-2235; Fax: (202) 228-2862

Senator Jeff Flake: Phone: (202) 224-4521

Your Congressperson (click this link)

Tell them Congress should:

• End Operation Streamline.
  

• Stop criminalization of immigrants by repealing unauthorized entry, §1325, and unauthorized re-entry, §1326, simply maintaining border crossing as a civil, not criminal, violation.
  
• Prohibit privatization of federal detention and incarceration through contracts with for-profit prison companies and local jurisdictions.
  
• Eliminate Department of Justice funding for prosecutions of migrants, detention centers, and the “CAR” prison program, which houses immigrants with felony convictions in federal prisons.
  
• Stop deportations and separation of immigrant families.
  

End Operation Streamline and National Days of Action  
Tucson Press Conference   Tuesday, 2.19.13 @ 12:30pm
De Concini Federal Courthouse

The End Operation Streamline Coalition will hold a press conference on Tuesday 2.19.13 at 12:30pm in front of the De Concini Federal Courthouse, as part of a call for National Days of Action leading up to a legislative hearing in DC on February 22 on Operation Streamline. Other groups across the country will be staging similar press conferences and actions from the 19 th to the 21st. Attached and below you can see a memo that outlines a broad statement of demands for any comprehensive immigration reform. This memo comes from national groups such as Grassroots Leadership, ACLU, AFSC, and Justice Strategies that are working to organize these National Days of Action. Please understand that while the End Streamline Coalition is participating in this and supportive of the broad steps needed to impact the immigration system and abuse of deportations, the focus of the
Coalition is currently to End Streamline here in Tucson.

We have the following asks of individuals and groups:

1. Please join us on Tuesday, 2.19.13 @ 12:30pm in front of the Federal Building, downtown for the press conference and presence decrying the crime of Operation Streamline. The confirmed speakers for this event will be: Andy Silverman (NMD), Caroline Isaacs (AFSC), and Isabel Garcia (Derechos Humanos). We are in the process of confirming a person of faith to also speak.

2. We are asking for organizations, groups, and churches who would like to support this effort and the press conference to sign on. Groups currently sponsoring are as follows: No More Deaths, Samaritans of Tucson, American Friends Service Committee, End Streamline Coalition. If organizations, groups, or churches would like to also sign on in name
for this event, you must contact me NO LATER THAN FRIDAY (2.15.13) @ 12pm. If you have more questions feel free to contact me as well. We recognize this is a short turnaround. Even if you cannot commit to sponsoring on such short notice, please still join us!!

Please forward out to your networks, listserves, and email lists upcoming email announcements regarding this event on Tuesday 2.19.13 as well as information on call-in days to legislators. Congress should:
 
•        Decriminalize border crossing by repealing unauthorized entry, §1325, and unauthorized re-entry, §1326, simply maintaining border crossing as a civil, not criminal, violation – and eliminate Department of Justice funding for felony and misdemeanor prosecutions of migrants crossing the border.

•        Prohibit the outsourcing of federal detention and incarceration functions, including ICE, Bureau of Prisons, and US Marshalls detention, to private prison companies and local jurisdictions, via contracts, Intergovernmental Service Agreements, MOUs, or other such agreements; and

•        Eliminate Department of Justice funding for the “CAR” prison program.

Fact Sheet: Operation Streamline

Operation Streamline is an initiative of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice begun in 2005 with the intention of establishing “zero-tolerance” immigration enforcement zones along the U.S.-Mexico border.  Under Operation Streamline, unauthorized migrants face criminal prosecution and potential prison sentences in addition to formal deportation  and removal from the United States.  Operation Streamline has drastically increased immigration prosecutions, making ‘Illegal Re-entry’ the most-commonly filed federal charge.

OPERATION STREAMLINE FACT SHEET

Operation Streamline is a Bush Administration program implemented in 2005 ordering federal criminal charges for every 
person who crosses the border illegally. In other words, it is a “zero tolerance” border enforcement program that targets 
even first time undocumented border-crossers. Instead of routing non-violent individuals caught crossing the border into 
civil deportation proceedings, Operation Streamline forces undocumented migrants through the federal criminal justice 
system and into U.S. prisons. 

Illustrating Operation Streamline

Seventy migrants captured by Customs and Border Patrol, or apprehended without papers inside the United States, are sentenced every day for jail and deportation in Tucson, Ariz through Operation Streamline. Within 48 hours, they are rushed past a judge and deported. Some defense lawyers and advocates say Streamline is in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Operation Streamline is a specialized court hearing of mass sentencings that began in 2005 during the George W. Bush administration. In 2011, it cost Tucson an estimated $56 million for legal and security staff alone. ST McNeil and Josh Morgan enlisted the help of graphic artist and University of Arizona assistant professor Lawrence Gipe to illustrate the story of Tucson's jury-less court. Sketched in charcoal, they are the first ever public images of Operation Streamline. 

View from Arizona: A Look at Operation Streamline

"When I walked into the courtroom, there were three sections of benches, each section with six benches. In front of the benches is a bar, on the other side of that is another bench on which three women sit who are also facing charges. The judge is on her dais facing all these benches, in front of the state of Arizona seal. Lined up in front of her are 12 men, behind them 8 lawyers. All the men are handcuffed, and their cuffs are then chained around their waists. Their feet are shackled. Another 20 men sit, shackled and cuffed, on the benches to the far left. Twenty or so have already been processed before I walked in, so almost 70 people will be going through this process today, with similar numbers most days. Later in the day, Magistrate Bernie Velasco tells our group that his personal best is to handle about 70 cases in 25 minutes, but it can take up to 45."