BORDER SQUEEZE YIELDS CASE OVERLOAD

U.S. courts swamped in Valley

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- The U.S. Justice Department is prosecuting more people
in the Texas-Mexico border region than ever, causing federal courthouses to
become overloaded with cases.

Some probation officers say they don't have time to check on newly released
felons properly, the San Antonio Express-News reported Monday.

The U.S. Marshals Service is so outnumbered it admits violating security
guidelines when handling inmates.

As the government deploys record numbers of U.S. Border Patrol agents, the
count of those facing federal drug and immigration charges has doubled and
even tripled in some places.

The past decade, the size of the Border Patrol has doubled to more than
8,000 agents. Congress wants to hire and assign another 1,000 border agents
next year.

Pressure on courts is such that it isn't unusual for two dozen people to be
read their rights en masse or for a judge to sentence 10 people standing
side by side.

But Kent Schaeffer, a Houston attorney on the board of directors of the
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said there is nothing
unconstitutional about the way authorities are handling the situation.

"Prosecutors are doing what they are entitled to do," Schaeffer said. "Just
because it is legal does not make it right."

Greg Serres, lead prosecutor for the U.S. Southern District of Texas, views
the situation this way: "I think we are swamped; I do not think it has had
an adverse impact on justice in South Texas."

In 1995, the federal court in Houston handled 286 criminal cases, more than
twice the number in Del Rio and slightly more than in Laredo.

But last year, Laredo had 989 cases, some of which included multiple
defendants. That was double the volume in Houston. Del Rio handled 606 cases
last year, 100 more than Houston.

U.S. District Judge Edward C. Prado, based in San Antonio in the western
federal district, was recently dispatched to help handle the court load in
El Paso.

Prado accepted pleas in a total of 77 cases in one day, eight more than the
average federal judge hears in a year, according to the administrative
office of the U.S. Courts.

Willie Greason, chief deputy marshal for the southern district, said there
are so many defendants that some security standards are violated.

Marshals' guidelines call for assigning one officer to each prisoner and
having a second marshal as backup. At that rate, all 60 deputies in the
region would have to cover a typical Monday morning in Laredo.

Carolyn King, the chief judge for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
based in New Orleans, which includes the Texas border, recently toured the
region in search of solutions.

"The more officers there are, the more cases there will be, and there have
been a ton," she said. "The only thing we can do is plead our case to the
Department of Justice."