Arrests of Illegal Aliens Drop but Flow Still High

Arrests of illegal aliens here are down by 12% so far in 1987, but U.S. immigration authorities at the nation’s busiest border crossing say there has been no letup in the flow of illegal immigrants since passage of the new immigration law.

Rather, officials attribute the recent decline in apprehensions here--the third consecutive month in which arrests have dropped--to a relatively little-noticed provision in the new immigration law that makes it more difficult to arrest illegal aliens who are engaged in farm and ranch work. The measure requires U.S. immigration authorities to obtain search warrants--or the owners’ permission--before entering many agricultural concerns to question workers.

“We’re seeing as many aliens entering the border area as we have in the past,” said Gene Smithburg, assistant chief U.S. Border Patrol agent for the San Diego sector, which covers 66 miles of heavily traversed border terrain dividing California from the Mexican state of Baja California.

Elsewhere along the 1,900-mile U.S.-Mexico border, particularly in Texas, immigration authorities noting declines in apprehensions of 25% or more have suggested that passage of the new bill may have dissuaded some illegal aliens from entering the country illegally. President Reagan signed the sweeping new law into effect on Nov. 6.

Some U.S. officials have theorized, for instance, that would-be illegal immigrants from Mexico may believe that a central provision of the new law--legal sanctions against employers who hire illegal aliens--may have made it more difficult to find work in the United States. Another theory is that many illegal aliens who traditionally return home to Mexico for the holidays may have remained in the United States this season so as not to interrupt their “continuous” residence in the United States; applicants under the so-called amnesty provisions of the new law must demonstrate such unbroken U.S. residence.

“There may be some reluctance for people to depart and then attempt to re-enter illegally,” noted Duke Austin, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington.

Others say that much different factors--such as unusually cold weather and flood conditions along the Rio Grande, as well as the the economic downturn in Texas--may better account for the reduction elsewhere.

However, none of these impediments seem to be deterring aliens from entering the San Diego area, which accounted for more than one-third of the record 1.7 million illegal aliens arrested along the U.S.-Mexico border in the last fiscal year.

Despite the 12% decline in apprehensions here, Smithburg said that unusually large numbers of illegal aliens have been spotted recently in heavily agricultural northern San Diego County--a longtime magnet for illegal aliens seeking farm labor jobs.

The requirement that officials obtain search warrants or the owners’ permission before entering agricultural concerns was included in the immigration bill at the insistence of the growers’ lobby.

In January, 1987, Border Patrol agents here arrested 47,497 illegal aliens, contrasted with a record 53,866 apprehended during January, 1986. Despite the 12% decline, this past month was still the second-busiest January on record.