Mass immigration trial at the Lucius D. Bunton Federal Courthouse, Pecos, Texas. Seven men and one woman pleaded guilty to crossing the U.S. Mexico border without permission during a criminal court hearing this week. Their trial marked the beginning of Operation Streamline in California, a controversial program which fast tracks immigration prosecutions by putting multiple groups of people through a federal criminal court hearing simultaneously and in a short period of time. The group hearings are expected to be held each day in San Diego. Norma Aguilar, a supervisory attorney with the Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc., called the program, “the inherently coercive system,” adding that some of the defendants’ attorneys didn’t agree with their clients’ decision to plead guilty.