‘Zero tolerance’ of migrants fills courts
More than 100,000 illegal border crossings in March and April are highest since Trump was elected
McALLEN, Texas — The crowded courtroom reeked of stale sweat, and 92 immigrants filled all five benches, leaving standing room only for visitors and court personnel.
“It’s packed in there,” said one of a dozen guards and deputy marshals stationed at the courtroom last week. “This is what it’s going to be like from now on — no more ‘catch and release.’ ”
That’s how opponents of illegal immigration, including President Donald Trump, have long condemned the policy of releasing migrants with pending court cases. But under a policy the Trump administration announced this month, migrants caught crossing the border illegally are charged in federal criminal court, including those without criminal records and parents traveling with small children.
The result: scores of cases flooding the federal courts, especially in southern Texas, the leading pathway for illegal immigration into the U.S.
“The impact is worst in McAllen, but it’s everywhere,” said Marjorie Meyers, federal public defender for the Southern District of Texas, calling it “an explosion.”
“Our caseload has jumped in all four divisions, including Corpus Christi, which is not even on the border,” she said.
The 92 immigrants appeared in the McAllen courthouse May 14. The next day, there were 50 migrants — more than in the past, but less than expected these days. At the last minute, another 50 immigrants were quarantined because of a chicken pox outbreak at a detention center. Immigration lawyers expect the caseload to increase this summer, the height of the immigration season, to perhaps 400 a day.
“We have always been one of the busiest courts in the nation,” said McAllen Assistant Federal Public Defender Miguel “Andy” Nogueras. “Now it’s ridiculous.”
Of the 92 migrants, 65 had no criminal records. Ten were parents, all separated from their children. Most were from Mexico and Central America and listened to the proceedings with headphones linked to a court interpreter.
The status of children is a constant theme. Before the new policy was announced, most parents were charged with administrative immigration violations. They were either held by ICE with their children in family detention or released at the border — some with ankle monitors, others with notices to appear in federal immigration court.
Under the new policy, some parents are separated from children and jailed. The agency says it aims to reunify parents with their children once they are released or placed in family detention.
Border Patrol caught more than 100,000 people illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in March and April, the highest monthly totals since Trump was elected. Families with children and unaccompanied minors increased from 10 percent of undocumented migrants detained five years ago to 40 percent now.
The Trump administration piloted the zero-tolerance policy along other, less busy stretches of the border last year, from Arizona to El Paso.
The Department of Health and Human Services is preparing to house migrant children on military bases, as it last did during an inf lux of Central American families in 2014.