Q: What Is Operation Streamline?
A. Operation Streamline is a federal immigration enforcement program that combines efforts by components of the Department of Homeland Security (Customs and Border Protection, or "CBP," Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or "ICE") and the Department of Justice - local U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals Service. As described by DHS, "Operation Streamline II focuses on aliens who enter illegally through a high-traffic area within the Del Rio Border Patrol Sector. Those illegal aliens who are not released due to humanitarian reasons will face prosecution for illegal entry. The maximum penalty for violation of this law is 180 days incarceration. While the illegal alien is undergoing criminal proceedings, the individual will also be processed for removal from the United States."
After its inception in Texas, Operation Streamline expanded to New Mexico (Las Cruces) and Arizona (Yuma and Tucson.)
Operation Streamline has been the subject of investigative reporting and scholarly briefing:
- "Fortress America," a multi-day, multi-media series in March 2007 by Michael Riley at the Denver Post;
- "Assembly-Line Justice," a policy brief in January 2010 by the Warren Institute at Berkeley Law School;
- "Arrested on Entry," a feature story in April 2010 by the Migration Policy Institute;
- "Neither Meritorious nor Reasonable," a backgrounder in May 2010 by the National Immigration Forum; and
- an excellent, in-depth, three-part series on NPR by Ted Robbins in September 2010.