Alien Arrests Surge on Border, Head for Record

Apprehensions of illegal aliens along the U.S.-Mexico border have surged in the last four months, and the number of border arrests in fiscal 1986 is expected to exceed last year’s record by at least 50%, Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Alan C. Nelson said Thursday.

Surpassing the INS’ own forecasts, arrests in January alone soared by more than half, as contrasted with the same month last year, and the total for the first four months of this fiscal year is 43% ahead of the same period in 1985, Nelson said. The 1986 arrest total now is expected to reach 1.8 million, he added.

Although Nelson said the surge in arrests results partly from a 33% increase in Border Patrol officers and improved detection equipment, he attributed most of the increase to the sagging economies in Mexico and Central America.

“I do not believe we can continue to experience a massive flow of people illegally into the United States without seeing substantial impacts on our nation and on our economy,” Nelson said.

Meanwhile, INS officials said they had no estimate of how many of the illegal aliens apprehended are repeaters who have been counted more than once in the total.

Alan E. Eliason, chief Border Patrol agent in the San Diego sector, estimated that about half of those who attempt to cross the border illegally are caught in his sector.

The climbing number of arrests includes “significantly more family groups,” which the INS expects will stay in the United States for a longer time than other illegal aliens, and a rise in non-Mexicans, whom Nelson said pose “easy targets for border bandits,” presumably because they are less familiar with the bandits’ tactics.

About 500 illegal aliens crossing into California last year fell victim to such bandits, according to Eliason. He added that the crimes included 8 murders, 15 rapes and 158 armed robberies.

However, these totals represent only a fraction of the violations, because “crimes usually are not reported (by illegal aliens) unless you apprehend the victims,” Eliason said. He estimated that “less than 20%” of border crimes are reported.

Nelson said U.S. officials have held discussions with their Mexican counterparts to “elicit their cooperation” in reducing the flow of illegal aliens. In addition, he noted, border enforcement has been beefed up and federal officials have worked with the states to identify ineligible aliens applying for various social programs.

While acknowledging that he could not yet point to any concrete moves taken by Mexico, Nelson said the talks themselves “represent a big breakthrough,” because there had been “a lack of open discussion for many years.”