Although such cases were making national headlines, critics said the U.S. attorney's office seemed to have gone missing on the border.
A Border Patrol report last May found that 6% of the 289 suspected smugglers arrested in the San Diego area were prosecuted by her office in the fiscal year ending in September 2003.
"It is very difficult to keep agents' morale up," the report said.
Some lawyers recalled seeing prosecutors ask for lenient sentences -- sometimes less than 11 months -- for repeat smugglers, including one with 20 arrests, just to clear cases.
"People were astounded sitting in the courtroom to see how many times people were getting away with things," said one lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he works closely with the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego.
Lam was criticized by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who said the U.S. attorney was not keeping up with the high volume of border arrests.
In July, Darryl Griffen, head of the Border Patrol in San Diego, complained that too many smugglers and other criminals were being escorted back to Mexico.
Lam's performance evaluation report for 2005, written in Washington, said the number of immigration cases her office was handling was "statistically lower" than those of other border districts, even though San Diego has one of the largest and most open borders.
She disagreed with the evaluation and maintained that she was tough on border crimes.
On Tuesday, Lam testified on Capitol Hill with other recently fired federal prosecutors. She acknowledged complaints from the Border Patrol agents' labor union about her decision last year to reduce prosecutions of low-level "coyotes" used in smuggling operations.
She said her office did not have the resources to keep up with the demand for more border trials.
Lam is now senior vice president and legal counsel for Qualcomm Inc., the San Diego-based telecommunications company.
richard.serrano@latimes.com
