Burning Atlanta

Enforcement works. As a result of such policies illegals are seeking other routes. The harder it gets the fewer will come. Still remains the fact that cutting off jobs is the best tying to do. No jobs=no reason to make the trip.

Jail them all.

Two Mexican brothers and their cousin were the first three migrants to cross the border illegally within El Paso's new zero-tolerance zone and the first to be jailed, prosecuted and sentenced Friday under the new program.

José de Jesús Gutiérrez Ledezma, 36, his brother Armando Gutiérrez Ledezma, 35, and their cousin Juan Carlos Ledezma Velazquez, 24, pleaded guilty Friday to the misdemeanor "entry without inspection" and were sentenced to time served, which was 11 days. They were facing up to six months in jail and up to $5,000 in fines. 11 days!!?? Eww, really tough. How about a 30 day minimum including picking up trash along the border left by other illegals?

Of the 34 adults, 28 were prosecuted for entry without inspection, four were prosecuted for re-entry after deportation and two were sent back to Mexico under expedited removal.

The 34 apprehensions were a big drop from the 139 undocumented immigrants captured at the same spot at the same time last year, Border Patrol officials said.

But critics said prosecuting immigrants who have no criminal background is costly to the taxpayer and serves only to crowd jails and burden courts.

The cost to the taxpayers is hard to gauge, but Poissant, a Criminal Justice Act panel attorney who picks up indigent cases overflow from the public defender's office, said the government paid him $100 an hour for those cases.

The late Sheriff Leo Samaniego said in 2005 that it cost about $58 a day to house an inmate in the El Paso County Jail. And what's the cost of doing NOTHING except instantly returning them? Whats' the cost in crime and to victims considering about 1 in 10 crosseros has a criminal record?