The Child Separation Fiasco: How Did We Get Here?

The policy of family separation evoked alarm and outrage from the general public this summer. But this practice is merely the latest in a decades-long trend of increased criminalization of migrants along the Southwest border.

To better understand how we got here, panelists traced the history of an obscure yet powerful section of federal criminal code: Section 1325 of Title 8 of U.S. Code. This law, created in 1929, culminated in Tucson with the 2008 creation of “Operation Streamline” that many Tucsonans are now familiar with.

Panelists will make the argument that family separation was made possible, in part, by this decades-old criminal statute that today accounts for over half of all federal prosecutions, and that . . .

. . . any genuine policy change in this arena
ought to focus on
eliminating Section 1325.

"The Child Separation Fiasco: How Did We Get Here?"

was held Tuesday August 21st, 2018

Pueblo High School
Little Theatre
3500 S 12th Ave Tucson AZ 85713

Many thanks to Billy Peard, Isabel Garcia and Robert Williams,
our honored speakers for this event!
Thank you to everyone who came to the event.

Presentations by:

Isabel Garcia

Isabel Garcia, a fourth-generation Tucsonan, is a lawyer and longtime human rights advocate and organizer with Coalición de Derechos.She has worked as an Assistant Pima County Public Defender, then as an Assistant Federal Public Defender until 1986, when she began private practice where she focused on criminal and immigration defense litigation. In 1992 Isabel was named Director of the Pima County Legal Defender where she fought against the injustices in the criminal justice system and the incarceration of our communities until her retirement in July 2015.
Isabel has simultaneously championed migrant rights, and has fought against the militarization of the US/Mexico border, bringing international focus on policy-driven death along US/Mexico border. Among her many awards and recognitions, in 2006 Isabel was awarded the Human Rights Award from Mexico’s Human Rights Commission

Billy Peard

Billy Peard is the ACLU of Arizona's bilingual staff attorney based in Tucson. Prior to joining the ACLU of Arizona, Billy was a staff attorney for legal aid in Massachusetts, where he represented immigrant farmworkers in unpaid minimum wage, overtime, and immigration matters. Previously, Billy was a staff attorney at Georgia Legal Services Program where he represented workers earning sometimes as little as $4 per hour. He earned his B.A. in History and Political Science from Warren Wilson College (North Carolina) and his J.D. from Vermont Law School. Billy grew up in Tucson.

Robert Williams, Moderator

Robert A. Williams, Jr. is the Regents' Professor, E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Chair of the University of Arizona Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program. He has represented tribal groups and members before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples, the United States Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court of Canada.