Claims Of Border Program Success Are Unproven

[alp227]

Source: NPR

The Border Patrol says three measures prove Operation Streamline is a success. First, it says, few of those convicted try to cross the border again. Second, it points to the decrease in the total number of people being apprehended crossing illegally. And third, the government says Operation Streamline has allowed it to concentrate on more serious crime.

NPR was not given access to Operation Streamline prisoners while they were in custody, but the Centro para Atención a los Migrantes Deportados in Nogales, Sonora, provided a place to test the claim that Operation Streamline acts as a deterrent, stopping people from crossing again.

The center is a religious-run charity that feeds people who've recently been deported. Men and a few women sit on benches in the covered open-air building to hear a blessing and eat their dinner.

Few of the deportees had heard the term "Operation Streamline," but over a period of two days, 35 of 96 people said they had appeared before a judge and been convicted.

And 30 of the 35 said they would cross again. That 85 percent figure is much higher than the 20 percent recidivism rate the U.S. government uses. So the claim doesn't hold up, at least in this group. Only one man says he won't cross again because he fears a longer jail sentence.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129827870

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1. Deleted message

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[jwirr]

2. Job seekers seldom come for jobs that do not exist. We are in a deep

recession.