New Law May Be Key as Alien Arrests Dip

Despite a recent nationwide decline in arrests of illegal aliens, U.S. immigration officials in San Diego--the nation’s busiest crossing point for illegal immigrants--said Monday they can’t link the dip to passage of the new immigration law.

“It’s just too soon to tell,” said Gene Smithburg, assistant chief Border Patrol agent in the San Diego sector, which includes 66 miles of heavily traversed border.

In San Diego, Smithburg added, agents will keep a close watch on the number of arrests in January, when there is usually a rapid rise in illegal immigration after a year-end lag. “There should be some indication next month,” he said.

Elsewhere along the border, particularly in Texas, officials have reported a significant decrease in the arrests of illegal aliens since President Reagan signed the bill into law on Nov. 6. Duke Austin, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said arrests of illegal aliens along the entire U.S.-Mexico border during the week of Nov. 16-22 had declined by 29% compared to last year.

Although there is no solid proof, authorities speculate that the bill may be at least partly responsible for the decline. Some aliens, they theorize, may be dissuaded from entering the United States because of fear that U.S. employers are now checking the papers of prospective workers, as will eventually be required under the new law. Another theory is that illegal aliens now in the United States who feel they may qualify for legalization are hesitant to take short-term trips to Mexico, fearing that such voyages may endanger their chances for amnesty under provisions of the new law requiring “continuous” residence in the United States. Thus, the theory goes, fewer aliens who reside in the United States are trying to return and as a result fewer are apprehended.

“We’re certainly hopeful” that the bill has led to a decline in illegal entry into the United States, said Austin, but he agreed that it was too early to note a trend.

Border Patrol officials in San Diego say arrests of illegal aliens have dropped since Nov. 6 by about 10% compared to the same period last year.

The officials noted that November and December are generally relatively slow months along the border. Traditionally, many illegal migrant workers return to Mexico for the holidays, and agricultural employment in the United States is at a minimum now, lessening the attraction for undocumented workers.

In San Diego, between Nov. 6, when the bill became law, and Sunday, agents arrested 30,154 illegal aliens, the great majority of them Mexicans who were quickly returned to Mexico. During the same period in 1985, agents arrested 33,095 people.

In fiscal 1986, the San Diego Border Patrol sector, which covers all of San Diego County and parts of Orange and Riverside counties, accounted for more than one-third of the record 1.7 million arrests of illegal aliens along the Mexican border.

U.S. officials consider arrests of illegal aliens the best barometer of unauthorized entry into the United States, and the ever-rising numbers are often cited to demonstrate a so-called “invasion” of illegal aliens from Mexico. However, the numbers can vary according to agency staffing and often include the multiple counting of illegal aliens who are repeatedly arrested and sent back to Mexico.