Leaked photo reveals 'mass trial' of immigrants in Texas

The Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy has led to more mass trials like this one in a federal courthouse in Pecos, Texas.

See images of the U.S.-Mexico border wall over the years. The Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy has led to more mass trials like this one in a federal courthouse in Pecos, Texas.

See images of the U.S.-Mexico border wall over the years. Image 1 of / 47 Caption Close Leaked photo reveals 'mass trial' of immigrants in Texas 1 / 47 Back to Gallery

A recently leaked image shows dozens of immigrants in orange jumpsuits, their hands and feet shackled, undergoing a "mass trial" in Pecos, Texas, a small town roughly 70 miles southwest of Odessa.

Rapid fire trials like the one seen in the image are not an anomaly, but few Americans know what the controversial practice looks like since photographing federal court proceedings is forbidden.

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Debbie Nathan, the reporter who came across the image while covering mass trials in Texas for The Intercept, said the photo was floating around the Pecos legal community and was apparently snapped by someone who felt morally conflicted by the effects of the Trump administration's new "zero tolerance" policy.

Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to criminally charge 100 percent of immigrants entering the country illegally, expanding a program known as Operation Streamline, a zero-tolerance approach introduced in 2005 credited with creating the practice of mass trials.

While mass trials occurred throughout the Obama administration, Sessions' new policy has made them more frequent and caused them to take place while parents are separated from their children.

"For those that continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned: This is a new era. This is the Trump era," Sessions said at the time.

Nathan, who has covered border and immigration issues for three decades, told Chron.com that similar mass trials she attended recently in Brownsville and El Paso were some of the most upsetting things she's witnessed during her career.

"The atmosphere is extremely subdued," Nathan said. "People are very exhausted, very demoralized ... You get the feeling that they don't know whats going on."

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According to Nathan, public defenders only have minutes to meet with each of the defendants. When a judge asks a question, the entire room must often answer in unison to save time. Many of the migrants have no clue where their children are.

"It feels like an assembly line," Nathan said. "It's a mass production of guilty pleas."

"It's horrible, I've been pretty broken by all of this," she said.

Fernando Ramirez is a reporter for Chron.com and the Houston Chronicle. You can follow him on Twitter at @fernramirez93.