Tough court on immigration serves as model for Trump plans

DEL RIO, Texas — One by one, the Mexican men stood in the jury box, shackles rattling as they fidgeted slightly and pleaded guilty to crossing the U.S. border illegally.

They had come for better jobs, many to earn more money to help raise their children, their defense lawyer told a federal magistrate in a quiet west Texas courtroom about 3 miles north of the Mexican border. The magistrate, Collis White, warned that a guilty plea would mean jail time and they couldn’t return to the United States legally for years. Speaking in Spanish, each of the 15 men said they understood. They faced up to six months in jail, but most were sentenced to just a few days.

They had the misfortune of landing in America’s toughest courthouse for people who cross the border illegally. In other jurisdictions, authorities routinely skip the criminal charges and order quick deportations. But for the last decade, just about everyone arrested near Del Rio gets prosecuted.

That tough approach is a model President Donald Trump hopes to replicate as part of his sweeping plans to stop illegal immigration, the cornerstone of his campaign. He wants to prosecute many more people caught crossing the border illegally as a warning to others that crossing the border illegally has serious consequences.

Supporters of aggressive prosecutions point to a drop in arrests for illegal border crossings in the Del Rio area as evidence that the tough approach works. Fewer arrests are seen as an indication that fewer people are trying to cross illegally.

Stepping up prosecutions wouldn’t be cheap. Immigration cases already account for more than half of federal prosecutions. Trump is seeking hundreds of millions dollars more for more jail cells, prosecutors and marshals to transport prisoners. It’s unclear if Congress will give him the money.

Civil libertarians object to the prosecutions, saying those arrested are rushed through the legal system without having a chance to exercise their rights.

And a previous attempt to expand the Del Rio approach had mixed results. Prosecutions spiked at the end of the Bush administration and during the first years of the Obama administration, but later declined. Limited resources, including jail space and not enough prosecutors, contributed to that drop.

Still, Trump administration officials plan to press ahead. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly made the point as they’ve toured the border in recent weeks, saying those who enter the U.S. illegally will be prosecuted and deported. The Justice Department this month called on prosecutors to appoint border security coordinators in every judicial district.

“This is a new era. This is the Trump era,” Sessions said while visiting the border in Nogales, Ariz.