A border patrol vehicle drives along the border wall in Douglas, Ariz. January 2021.
District Attorney Gary Restaino says the office has received four attorneys from the Department of Homeland Security to help with prosecutions, as well as seven or eight clerical employees.
“It's trying to get individual accountability that is consistent with the individual circumstances of the defendant that's before us,” he said. “So someone that comes in having been deported after a felony in the United States, they're probably going to wind up with an immigration felony. If it's someone who's just a recidivist, we may well flip that person to a misdemeanor consistent with their individualized circumstances. And so with the extra personnel we really can help make those individualized determinations.”
The office also filed more than 300 cases against people accused of smuggling undocumented migrants, including four juveniles, during the last three months. And it prosecuted 53 drug cases from seizures at immigration ports of entry and checkpoints.
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