Paper No. 4: Does The Bond Schedule Used By The El Paso District Attorney’s Office Create A Double Standard For Mexican citizens In Violation Of The US Constitution? (June 2, 2009) Position Paper

In 2004, the use of a document titled; “Bond Schedule Approved by the Council of Judges” came to light in the challenge to the DIMS program in place in El Paso County. The document is used to set the bonds for criminal defendants in the County. The bond schedule delineates that “undocumented aliens” and “documented aliens” are to have bonds set at “4x” and “2x” of the amount set for a diverse set of criminal prosecutions. The use of this bond schedule to set bond for criminal defendants based on their immigration status raises several questions about the treatment of foreign nationals by the County of El Paso in opposition to the Constitutions of the United States and Texas, as well as International Treaties and accords to which the US government and the State of Texas are a party to.