San Ysidro
The Border Patrol arrested 2,316 people during a two-night sweep of the Brown Field area near the U.S.-Mexican border, a spokesman said Tuesday. The increased surveillance was designed to show the large numbers of suspected illegal aliens that could be taken into custody if more agents were available on a regular basis, said Joe Flanders, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The Border Patrol did not have cumulative figures for arrests throughout San Diego County area during the two days, however. Brown Field has the highest rate of arrests of any Border Patrol area in the nation. On Sunday night alone, agents arrested 2,345 people countywide, 1,258 of them at Brown Field.
Flanders said that agents were looking in particular for smugglers who charge aliens large amounts of money to lead them across the border away from agents. More than 60 agents were deployed out of Brown Field, far more than the customary 25 who patrol the border area at night.
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