Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

Starting Monday, every undocumented immigrant caught crossing the border between Mount Cristo Rey and the Paso del Norte Bridge will be prosecuted, Border Patrol officials said Friday.

Captured migrants are now fingerprinted, and if they have no criminal history, can be returned to Mexico within hours without being formally deported or serving jail time.

The new, zero-tolerance program, called "No Pass," is reminiscent of Operation Streamline, which started in 2005 in the Del Rio, Texas, sector and has spread to Laredo, Texas, and Yuma, Ariz.

Under the programs, undocumented immigrants are charged with the misdemeanor "entry without inspection," for which they can face up to 180 days behind bars.

But No Pass will not be citywide, Border Patrol spokesman Ramiro Cordero said. "We couldn’t (detain) everybody. We’d fill the El Paso County Jail in a couple of hours."

Last year, Border Patrol agents caught 75,464 undocumented immigrants in El Paso County and New Mexico, or an average of about 200 people a day.

The idea behind the program is that jail time will deter migrants from attempting to cross illegally.

In places where Operation Streamline is in practice, arrests reportedly have overcrowded jails and overburdened courts.

El Paso County Interim Sheriff Jimmy Apodaca, who oversees the county jail, is not concerned, said sheriff’s spokes man Rick Glancey.

"We’ll get them the space they need," Glancey said.

The three- to four-mile stretch between the Paso

del Norte Bridge and Mount Cristo Rey is not the busiest spot in the sector. Border Patrol officials said they chose the area because head gates make the canal dangerous at that spot and because the area is a drug-smuggling corridor.

Betty Camargo of the Border Network for Human Rights, a group advocating for the rights of undocumented immigrants in El Paso said No Pass would affect immigrants.

"But of course, like anything, after some time, the people are going to know about it and they will go through another route," she said.

This good news, but should be the policy all along the border.