{"id":594603,"date":"2018-06-23T08:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-06-23T14:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=594603"},"modified":"2018-06-22T19:26:50","modified_gmt":"2018-06-23T01:26:50","slug":"with-charges-dropped-against-some-parents-who-crossed-border-with-families-is-zero-tolerance-still-in-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/06\/with-charges-dropped-against-some-parents-who-crossed-border-with-families-is-zero-tolerance-still-in-effect\/","title":{"rendered":"With charges dropped against some parents who crossed border with families, is &#8216;zero tolerance&#8217; still in effect?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_593297\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-593297\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Crowd_at_Tornillo_IVP_TT-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"Tornillo Land Point of Entry\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Crowd_at_Tornillo_IVP_TT-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Crowd_at_Tornillo_IVP_TT-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Crowd_at_Tornillo_IVP_TT-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Crowd_at_Tornillo_IVP_TT.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Ivan Pierre Aguirre \/ for the Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marchers head toward the Tornillo Land Point of Entry to protest the tent city erected there to house children separated from their parents at the border.<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The Trump administration insists it&#8217;s still prosecuting everyone who crosses the border illegally. But in one of Texas\u2019 busiest border districts, federal prosecutors have dropped charges against some immigrants who entered the United States with their children \u2014\u00a0raising questions about whether President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy effectively remains in place.<\/p>\n<p>In an executive order Wednesday ending the separation of families at the border, Trump declared that migrant families should be detained together by the Department of Homeland Security while parents await prosecution, instead of parents being sent to jails and children sent to shelters. But doing that requires overcoming exceedingly difficult <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/06\/21\/trump-says-hell-prosecute-parents-without-splitting-families-will-be-c\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">legal and logistical challenges<\/a> \u2014 so \u201cthere is a necessary transition that will need to occur,\u201d said Daryl Fields, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Texas, which covers hundreds of miles of the Texas-Mexico border, including El Paso and Del Rio.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAs part of that transition, the office\u00a0today dismissed certain cases that were pending when the president issued the order,\u201d Fields said Thursday night.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/06\/22\/charges-dropped-parents-crossed-border-family-separation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In the chaos wrought by Trump\u2019s order,\u00a0it\u2019s not clear exactly how many cases have been dismissed\u00a0or who has ordered their dismissal \u2014\u00a0U.S. attorneys take their cues directly from the federal U.S. Department of Justice, which had ordered them to prosecute all illegal crossings \u201cto the extent practicable.\u201d Many attorneys representing migrants say they don\u2019t know. And federal officials have given conflicting information.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Maureen Scott Franco, who heads the federal public defender&#8217;s office in the Western District of Texas, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elpasotimes.com\/story\/news\/immigration\/2018\/06\/21\/charges-dropped-against-immigrants-separated-children-email-says\/723253002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote to her colleagues<\/a> Thursday that charges have been or will be dropped against all immigrants who were separated from their children.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Franco said in an interview later Thursday she was told by the U.S. attorney in the district that there weren\u2019t suitable facilities to hold the migrant families, so some cases were being dismissed \u201cif the case involved a family having to be separated.\u201d The federal government has three detention centers that hold families, and those were reportedly already near capacity weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As federal prosecutors consider options for housing families legally, Franco said, \u201ceverything is on hold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">On Thursday, Fields seemed to confirm that, telling NBC News that charges would be dismissed against all immigrants who did not have serious criminal histories. But later, he retracted that statement, instead saying only that his office dismissed \u201ccertain cases.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Franco said she expects no further charges will be filed against immigrants crossing with their families until the government solves its facilities challenge.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">That would be a sharp departure from the Trump administration\u2019s insistence that everyone who crosses the border illegally is still being prosecuted. U.S. Customs and Border Protection <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/us-will-stop-prosecuting-parents-who-cross-the-border-illegally-with-children-official-says\/2018\/06\/21\/4902b194-7564-11e8-805c-4b67019fcfe4_story.html?utm_term=.82bd0b947834\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told The Washington Post Thursday<\/a> it would stop sending families to federal prosecutors. The Department of Justice did not return a request for comment Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Dropping charges puts a \u201cmajor dent\u201d in the administration\u2019s \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy, said Carlos Spector, an immigration attorney in El Paso.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But even without criminal charges, Spector said, families are likely to be held for long stretches of time in immigration detention centers as they contend with the civil portion of their immigration cases.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Spector said he wasn\u2019t sure how far the policy had spread, but added, \u201cI can\u2019t imagine it just being here. Ground zero for \u2018zero tolerance\u2019 is El Paso. So if they lifted it here it makes no sense to have it anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It\u2019s not clear whether charges against migrant parents have been dropped in the Southern District of Texas, the state\u2019s other major border region, which includes ports of entry from Laredo down to Brownsville.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">On Friday, 61 immigrants appeared in a McAllen courthouse to be arraigned on illegal entry charges, according to Marjorie Meyers, the top federal public defender in the region. None of them had crossed the border with children.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And on Thursday morning, 17 immigrants\u00a0who were separated from their children had been brought to the same McAllen courthouse on allegations of illegal entry. But minutes before the judge arrived, their cases were removed from the docket and they were not charged, according to the Texas Civil Rights Project, whose lawyers were on hand for the proceedings.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Meyers confirmed that the 17 immigrants who were taken off the judge\u2019s schedule had been deemed \u201cheads of household,\u201d\u00a0suggesting their prosecution was stalled because they had children in the United States.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Other immigrants in the courtroom Thursday were criminally charged, the Texas Civil Rights Project said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Angela Dodge, spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor in the Southern District, said Thursday that \u201cwe prosecuted all the cases that were presented in court today.\u201d Cases removed from the docket would not have been presented in court.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cNo cases were dismissed in the Southern District of Texas due to the family unit issue,\u201d Dodge insisted.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But Carlos Garc\u00eda, a defense attorney who works with immigrants in South Texas, said based on what he\u2019s seen in the McAllen courthouse, federal prosecutors seem to be retreating from the \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cBased on the last two days\u2026 it is my belief that they are not prosecuting parents whose kids were taken away,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n<p>Meyers said since Trump\u2019s order on Wednesday, it\u2019s been unclear how prosecutors and immigration officers will handle immigrants who crossed the border with their children.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>Juli\u00e1n Aguilar and Paul Cobler contributed reporting. <\/em><script async src=\"https:\/\/cdn.texastribune.org\/pixel\/dot.min.29c708b3d0da5d17a725.js\" integrity=\"sha384-8Xwf\/TlQnmHiajg1t3dn8w4qlF1rmV33o5NAQVXYu0T2q3rHV5579zrSmRjh+XnM\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/06\/22\/charges-dropped-parents-crossed-border-family-separation\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Trump administration says it is. But the top federal prosecutor in one of Texas&#8217; busiest border districts has dropped charges against immigrants who arrived with their families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":593297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140],"class_list":["post-594603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}