Federal prosecutors in California believed that its better to spend their limited resources going after smuggling networks and repeat border crosses with serious criminal records.
Carol Lam, a former U.S. attorney in San Diego, said zero-tolerance programs are “ultimately ineffective.” According to her, the programs increase conviction numbers, but do not have equivalent impact on reducing crimes.
Lam explained, “The sentence become much shorter to the point where everyone is getting time serve or a few weeks in custody… At the end of the day, the system grinds down to a halt and things starts deteriorating.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego released a statement stressing its commitment to “securing the border and enforcing criminal immigration laws in a way that respects due process and the dignity of all involved.”
It also noted that other districts along the border states—Arizona, New Mexico and Texas—have been conducting mass hearings for almost a decade. Last month, prosecutors in San Diego visited Tucson to observe the process. A judge in Tucson sees as much as 75 defendants per day. Every hearing lasts about two hours and involve around five to seven immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally.”
