Law Enforcement Works, Even In Immigration

Even when it comes to illegal immigration. All those who claim "we can't do anything about illegal immigration" are wrong.
Yes, we can -a zero-tolerance policy for border crossers in Laredo has cut border crossings:

A tactic to prosecute first-time illegal border crossers has cut down illicit crossings in the Laredo sector by as much as 36 percent, Customs and Border Protection said Friday.

"Word is spreading quickly that illegal entry has its consequences," Carlos X. Carrillo, chief patrol agent for the CBP Laredo sector, said in a news release touting the sector's first 45 days of Operation Streamline.

The zero-tolerance program drew national attention to Del Rio when courtrooms overflowed with immigrants who formerly would have been released at the border or given a notice to appear in court. Instead many never reappeared in court.

But the Border Patrol credited the program with deterring illegal immigration, which they said frees agents to spend more time intercepting smuggled drugs.

Statistics showed apprehensions in Del Rio dropped more than a third in the year since the program was implemented in December 2005. Marijuana seizures meanwhile jumped 125 percent and cocaine seizures spiked 3,828 percent.

The program was expanded a year later to the Border Patrol's Yuma, Ariz., sector, where apprehensions dropped 70 percent in the first eight months.

Streamline-Laredo began Oct. 31. Since then, anyone found coming into the U.S. illegally has been arrested, taken to court and subjected to penalties including fines and up to six months in prison. Between Oct. 31 and Dec. 15, 1,058 undocumented immigrants were prosecuted, with judges ordering jail sentences ranging from 10 days to six months.