Fear of New Law Seen Declining : Arrests of Illegal Aliens Are Near Record for August

Arrests of undocumented immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego County declined in August, but U.S. authorities say the numbers remain unacceptably high and reflect a lessening fear of the new immigration law.

“We’re still seeing illegal aliens in almost record-breaking numbers,” said Michael Nicley, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego.

In August, Border Patrol agents in San Diego recorded 54,991 arrests of undocumented foreigners, a drop of about 12% from July. However, Nicley noted that July--when farm labor and other summer seasonal work is at a peak--is traditionally a busy month, and that this past month was still the second-busiest August on record in terms of arrests. The record for August is the 56,471 deportable foreigners arrested in August, 1986.

The arrest numbers are widely regarded as the single best barometer of illegal entry into the United States via the porous, 1,900-mile U.S.-Mexico border. The San Diego area, which affords quick access to bustling undocumented job markets in Southern California, accounts for more than one-third of all arrests of undocumented foreigners borderwide.

Throughout the border, officials say that the precipitous declines in arrests that coincided with enactment of the new immigration law have abated somewhat as undocumented people recognize the continued availability of employment in the United States. “The aliens know they can get jobs,” said Nicley, a supervisory patrol agent in San Diego.

In San Diego, arrests of illegal aliens in May plummeted a startling 61% compared to May, 1986, as exaggerated reports of mass deportations and drastically decreased job availability apparently dissuaded many would-be undocumented immigrants from attempting to cross the border. But detentions steadily rose thereafter, culminating in a record 63,061 arrests in July.