Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Legal, civil rights groups urge a halt to Operation Streamline

James Stiven, a retired U.S. magistrate judge for the Southern District of California, said Operation Streamline programs put extra pressure on courts and attorneys. But they have “no particular deterrent effect” on immigrants.

By Connor Radnovich, Cronkite News
February 21, 2013

WASHINGTON – Programs that fast-track illegal immigrants through the federal courts are costly, constitutionally questionable and are overburdening courts and should be done away with, civil rights and legal groups said Thursday.

The groups urged that Operation Streamline, which has been in place since 2005, should not be part of any comprehensive immigration reform package.

“The costs to the immigrants themselves, the family members they have in the United States as well as in Mexico, and any potential employers aside, we have to consider that the cost to our taxpayers in making Operation Streamline is absolutely prohibitive and hard to justify in these poor economic times,” said Heather Williams, first assistant federal public defender for Arizona. [...]

Read the full article:
http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2013/02/legal-civil-rights-groups-urge-a-halt-to-operation-streamline/

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