Tomorrow, Tuesday October 6, @ 11:30pm people will join outside of Senator John McCain’s office in downtown Tucson for a press conference and to rally against Senate Resolution 104!

SR 104 claims Operation Streamline is effective and needs to be expanded. This form of criminally prosecuting immigrants merely for their presence in the United States must end and we need your help. Please join us tomorrow to lend your presence and voice to the call to end criminal prosecutions of immigrants!!

Also, please consider signing this petition asking the members of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to reject SR 104 which they will consider on Wednesday, October 7 in committee.

Below is the PRESS RELEASE for more information:

COMMUNITY TO SENATORS MCCAIN AND FLAKE: KILL OPERATION STREAMLINE!

Inhumane, ineffective and costly immigrant prosecutions fueling incarceration rates

CONTACT: Amanda Garces – (520) 770-1373 – coalicion@derechoshumanosaz.net

Tucson, AZ. – Senate Resolution 104, presently set for hearing before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) on October 7, 2015, calls for a “sense” of the Senate that a little-known federal immigrant-prosecution program, Operation Streamline, is a “success” that should be continued and expanded. On the contrary, this extremely expensive, inhumane, and embarrassing program has not been proven effective in reducing migration, even according to the Department of Homeland Security’s own Office of Inspector General. The OIG’s recent audit did NOT substantiate the claims of Operation Streamline’s “success,” and also noted that the Border Patrol may be violating international treaties by prosecuting refugees.

“The call for more resources to continue a cruel process to criminalize more and more migrants is shameful,” stated Isabel Garcia of Derechos Humanos. “The taxpayer should be outraged at the expenditure of millions and millions of dollars, including over $30 million per month in the Tucson U.S. District Court alone, with the result that “improper entry” and “reentry after deportation” are now the most frequently prosecuted federal crimes in the nation,” added David R. Wolf of the End Streamline Coalition.

The Senators’ claim that the dramatic drop in migration was in part due to Operation Streamline is simply not true. All consensuses identify the reason for the decline as the economic downturn in the United States. Equally troubling is the Senators’ claim that a criminal prosecution and prison time will cause a migrant not to return. This assertion ignores the realities of individuals and their families fleeing violence in their countries of origin, seeking economic opportunity, or reuniting with family members in the United States. Meanwhile, the impact of these convictions effectively bars those convicted from ever being able to return lawfully, even if their entire families live in the U.S.

The private-prison corporations are the only parties finding “success.” Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), raked in $1.6 billion in 2014 revenue, including $724.2 million from federal government contracts. Senator McCain and dozens of members of Congress and the Senate have benefited from this “success,” with Senator McCain in particular receiving tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.

Enough! We must call and write to Senate HSGAC members, and particularly Senator McCain, demanding that Senate Resolution 104 be withdrawn and voted down and that prosecutions for crossing the border be stopped altogether.

JOIN US:      TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015, 11:30 AM

                        Office of Senator John McCain

                        407 W. Congress, Tucson, AZ 85701