Indefensible: A Decade of Mass Incarceration of Migrants Prosecuted for Crossing the Border

December 2015 marked the 10th anniversary of “Operation Streamline,” a program targeting migrants who cross the border without authorization for criminal prosecution. The policy is notorious for mass hearings in which up to 80 migrants are arraigned, found guilty, convicted and sentenced for improper entry, a federal misdemeanor, simultaneously in one hearing often lasting less than two hours. However, the mass hearings of Operation Streamline, long decried by immigrant rights advocates, are only the tip of the iceberg. Lesser known is the widespread expansion of felony re-entry prosecutions over the past decade that came with the creation and expansion of the Streamline program. Since 2005, nearly three quarters of a million people have been prosecuted in our federal courts for the crime of improper migration. Indefensible is an oral history of the evolution of Operation Streamline over 10 years and the mass incarceration of migrants that came with it. We examine its legacy and opportunities for resistance.