Border Crackdown Succeeds : Special Force Seizes 7,200 Illegal Aliens

U.S. immigration officials announced Sunday that a special task force had apprehended 7,200 illegal aliens in “staging areas and drop houses” and had arrested 232 smugglers during a 30-day crackdown along the California and Arizona borders with Mexico and extending north as far as Huntington Beach.

Even as immigration officials were releasing the results to the press at the San Clemente border checkpoint on Interstate 5, another 50 illegal aliens were being plucked out of cars and trucks only a few feet away.

“No matter how many of these operations we put on, the tide is not turning,” said Harold Ezell, western regional commissioner for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. “We could put border patrolmen every 20 feet along the southern border and it’s not going to change the results until we make it illegal to hire illegal aliens.”

The experimental “Operation Disruption” was intended to disrupt alien smuggling networks in the two states during what the INS calls the peak season for illegal immigration.

Immigration agents moved in as soon as staging areas and drop houses were detected, said Alan Eliason, chief patrol agent for the San Diego area. Drop houses are where aliens are brought after they are smuggled across the border. Transportation staging areas are where the illegal aliens assemble and await their rides north. Agents watch both for a while, hoping to be led to ringleaders, he said.

The operation, which also relied on undercover agents and informants, dramatically increased the number of illegal aliens apprehended and improved agents’ ability to identify and break up smuggling rings, INS spokesmen said.

John Belluardo, director of congressional and public affairs for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Los Angeles, said the operation was “a very effective approach to dealing with the despicable persons who are smugglers of human flesh.”

During a typical month and using standard tactics, about 1,000 aliens are apprehended, compared to the 7,200 caught by the special task force agents at drop houses, transportation staging areas and border crossing points in the two states, Belluardo said.

The 232 suspected smugglers and transporters of illegal aliens arrested during the 30-day operation compares to about 20 smuggling cases uncovered by INS investigators in an average month, Ezell said.

The arrests of Operation Disruption are believed to have netted smugglers and transporters of illegal aliens involved in about 35 major smuggling rings.

More than 3,000 of the 7,200 illegal aliens apprehended were caught in the San Diego sector, which stretches from the Mexican border into Orange County on the north and to the Imperial County line on the east. About one-third of the 232 smugglers operated in that region.

“We’re very pleased with the results, and while most of those arrested for smuggling are middlemen, we feel confident that their apprehension will lead to the source of these major smuggling organizations,” Belluardo said.

Belluardo said that he was uncertain how many agents were assigned to Operation Disruption but estimated that more than 500 man-hours were involved. Operation Disruption was only an experiment, he said, but will be used again as money becomes available.

“We’ve been trying to step up our anti-smuggling efforts and this (operation) has proven effective,” Belluardo said.

Belluardo said most of the 7,200 illegal aliens arrested chose to return to Mexico rather than try their luck at deportation hearings. Anyone convicted of smuggling will face a maximum penalty of five years in jail and/or a $2,000 fine for each alien transported.

Agents working on Operation Disruption also seized 215 vehicles, confiscated three firearms and recovered four stolen cars.

Ezell stressed that the lure of U.S. jobs continues to attract aliens in increasing numbers. He said there also has been about a 16% increase in the apprehension of female illegal aliens, indicating that families, not just male workers, are entering the United States.