Capture of Illegal Aliens in Western U.S. Jumps 39%

The apprehension of illegal aliens in Western states set another all-time record during the past year, increasing 39% and inching closer to the 1 million mark, Immigration and Naturalization Service officials announced Wednesday.

And again the San Diego sector of the INS’ western region was the runaway leader, with a record 630,000 arrests during the fiscal year that ended Tuesday--compared to 428,000 in fiscal 1985. That’s an increase of 202,000, or 47%.

Of the 630,000 people arrested, about 400,000, or 58%, were offenders who were arrested more than once for illegal entry into the United States, said Alan Eliason, Border Patrol chief for the San Diego sector.

Eliason was joined by Harold Ezell, INS western regional commissioner, and Dale Musegades, Border Patrol chief for El Centro, at a press conference held at the Border Patrol’s offices here to announce the fiscal year-end total of apprehensions and to once again declare that the nation’s border with Mexico is besieged by illegal immigrants.

“The borders are out of control,” said Ezell, an outspoken critic of what he routinely describes as “an invasion,” who was flown by helicopter from Los Angeles especially for the news conference. “Illegal drugs or illegal aliens . . . it’s all the same. It’s out of control.”

Ezell said he didn’t mean to imply that all illegal aliens “carry the dope,” but that the flow of narcotics and people has made the border more vulnerable than ever before.

Unless Congress enacts some kind of immigration reform that includes sanctions against employers who hire illegal aliens, Ezell said the result in the next 10 to 15 years will be that the United States will “lose a generation to illegal drugs or lose the whole nation to illegal aliens.”

The commissioner called on the public to lobby Congress for immigration reform. “I believe the American public has to communicate more clearly their feeling that the borders are out of control,” he said.

Ezell, who has tried to illustrate his point by leading politicians and others on tours of the Mexican border that abuts San Diego just as illegal aliens begin their nightly trek through dry canyons into the United States, said politicians who express shock at the sight go back to Washington and forget what they saw when they encounter the “fog (by) the Potomac.”

Overall, detention of illegal aliens in the agency’s western region--made up of California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam--increased 39% in 1986, from 673,000 arrests in fiscal 1985 to 936,000 in fiscal 1986. Counting only California and Arizona, apprehensions increased from 623,000 to 890,000, according to INS statistics.