Operation Streamline's larger aim is to give the administration another tool to use in its crackdown on illegal immigration, said Susan B. Long, a TRAC co-director and Syracuse University professor.
"This is an effort to use the federal criminal justice system in immigration enforcement," Long said. "What it means is that immigration cases are dominating the federal court system these days. The volume of cases is really huge. This is a big deal."
Of 16,298 federal criminal prosecutions recorded nationwide in March, immigration cases accounted for more than half, Long said. The next-highest number, 2,674, was for drug offenses, followed by 702 for white-collar crime.
TRAC researchers found that all but 142 of the 9,350 new federal immigration prosecutions in March occurred in certain areas along the border with Mexico. Texas was most active, followed by Southern California.
California is not formally a part of the program. But prosecutions of people who smuggle illegal immigrants across the state's border have increased sharply in the last five years, nearly doubling to 118 cases in March.
The deluge of prosecutions is overwhelming some lawyers involved in the process.
Heather Williams, a federal public defender in Tucson, said the operation had a crushing effect when it was begun this year on a limited basis.
Defense attorneys fear for clients who are hustled into court, en masse, after spending days crossing the desert.
"We have to be concerned our clients are competent to plead, that they understand what's going on," Williams said.
Other immigrant advocates were critical of the increase in federal prosecutions.
"It doesn't mean we have an end to illegal immigration or a way of dealing with it," said Angela Kelley, director of the Immigration Policy Center.
A recent study showed that would-be border crossers were more concerned about heat and harsh conditions than border enforcement, she said. The study, by Wayne A. Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego, found that 98% of immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca were eventually able to enter the U.S.
But groups that want to see immigration tightly controlled applauded the new statistics.
"It sounds like very good news," said Roy Beck, director of NumbersUSA, which advocates stricter immigration controls.
"It's part of a pattern we've seen since last August where the administration, on the border and in the interior, seems almost monthly to be tightening the vise," he said.
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nicole.gaouette@latimes.com
Times staff writers Richard Marosi in San Diego and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.
