Border Patrol Agents Overwhelmed by Residents’ Frequent Calls for Aid

Mike Connell, patrol agent in charge of the Border Patrol’s El Cajon sector, which has responsibility for North County, operates what he calls a “squeaky wheel” management style.

When the noise from residents angry over the presence of illegal aliens gets loud enough, Connell dispatches agents to sweep the aliens from the offended neighborhood or remove their plastic or cardboard hooches.

In recent years the noise all over North County has been deafening.

“A lot people want action yesterday,” Connell said. “You try to explain to them the number of agents I have (40), and the territorial jurisdiction I have (2,000 square miles) . . .

“They’ll call one day and, if they don’t get service, they’ll yell at us the next day, and they’ll scream at us the third day, and they zip a letter off to their congressman on the fourth day.”

Residents throughout North County have found themselves in a political Catch-22: the Border Patrol has the authority to remove illegal aliens from their streets but not the manpower; the Sheriff’s

Department and other municipal police departments may have the manpower but not the legal authority.

Under federal law, a sheriff’s deputy or a city police officer cannot arrest someone solely on suspicion of being an illegal alien, but he or she can call the Border Patrol for assistance. Frequently, however, the Border Patrol is too busy to respond, even if the deputy or officer is holding a dozen or more aliens.

Caught in the crunch, residents are frustrated, some to the point of desperation, at a situation that seems out of control.

“They are frustrated with the fact that they thought this new (federal immigration) law was going to result in things changing immediately and it hasn’t,” Connell said. “It’s going to be a slow process. We’re hearing words (of) more vigilantism now.

“A lot of parents, especially in the mornings, are calling in about aliens that are sharing a street corner with the schoolchildren waiting for a bus. And, if we don’t do something about it, ‘If you guys don’t do something about it, we will.’ That type of thing--ultimatums.”

The average Border Patrol agent in Connell’s sector, which includes North County, parts of East County and parts of the south county, apprehended 1,380 aliens last year, more than the average agent in any other Border Patrol sector.

He estimates that 95% of the apprehensions are in North County, with the Tri-City area of Carlsbad-Oceanside-Vista--which is rich in agriculture and also serves as a staging area for the trek to Los Angeles--being the hottest sector. If he had twice as many agents, Connell says, he could make twice as many apprehensions.

Without the reinforcements, the Border Patrol has to make choices among trying to choke off the Interstate 5 corridor to Los Angeles, busting big-time smuggling rings and answering resident complaints. Although many residents may disagree, Connell, who has 13 1/2 years of Border Patrol experience, all of it in San Diego County, insists that he puts a priority on complaints.

“We’ve got to attend to the aliens that are causing the problems,” Connell said. “The ones that are becoming a nuisance. The ones that are harassing children. The ones that are trespassing on people’s property.

“The ones that are standing out on street corners and begging work and running up to cars and causing a scare to women who are driving to the store . . . . These things are very intimidating.”

The North County problem is part numbers, part visibility. The region has more illegal aliens than ever before, and they are more noticeable, Connell said.

Subdivisions have devoured the open space that hid their hooches. A decline in agriculture, and the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act sanctions against employers hiring illegal aliens, have decreased the number of jobs available.

Aliens have been forced to line the streets and wander door-to-door in search of jobs.

“This generates more phone calls, so we’re getting people saying ‘they’re everywhere, they’re everywhere,’ ” Connell said. “Well, they always were there, but they weren’t out on the streets as much as they are right now.”

Homeowners just moving in are often shocked to discover aliens next door.

Calls From Homeowners

“We get a lot of these phone calls from people who move into these new homes in North County from out of state,” Connell said. “They say, ‘Who the hell are these people? Who are these indigents standing around out here?’ ”

Take the Gopher Canyon area east of Oceanside, where illegal aliens have lived for years. Recently, ranch-style homes have sprung up. Not far behind have been complaints about illegal aliens.

“I got a letter the other day from Supervisor (John) MacDonald’s office informing me about illegal aliens camping in Gopher Canyon,” Connell said. “That’s like informing me the sun’s going to rise tomorrow. I was very aware that there were illegal aliens up there.

“What has happened in Gopher Canyon is that the aliens have always been there, but there’s never been new housing before.”

The Border Patrol works North County mainly during the day, Connell said. Shifting to night work might lead to more apprehensions but would probably do little to relieve the fear of residents.

“We can go out and work at midnight out here and walk through these encampments and come up with a phenomenal number of illegal aliens that are sleeping,” Connell said. “And we’d be out of North County before the sun came up and nobody would know we were out there.

“And the phones would ring off the hook, with people wanting to know why aren’t we out there now because all these aliens that we didn’t catch are out on the street.”

The blunt-spoken New Englander warns North County residents that under the new immigration law, many of the aliens they assume are illegal actually have the legal right to remain here under the amnesty and temporary agricultural worker portions of the law.

Of 50 aliens recently rounded up in a predawn raid, 35 were released because they had legal status to remain in this country, Connell said. Legal and illegal were all living in the same camp.

“I think a lot of people were under the delusion that once these aliens got temporary resident alien cards, they were going to get haircuts, take baths and get jobs just like the rest of us,” Connell said. “That isn’t so. They are going to continue to live in the brush and cause problems.”

Connell said the employer sanctions portion of the law, which began in earnest June 1, should decrease the number of jobs available to illegal aliens, making North County a less hospitable place for illegal aliens and possibly decreasing their numbers.

But he does not hold out the sanctions as a panacea--not as long as many residents continue to hire illegal aliens nor as long as Mexico’s economy is moribund.

“We have a high population of illegal aliens that are unemployed now that were employed prior to the law,” Connell said. “But they aren’t going back south. There is some optimism here, there is some hope. Maybe they’ll get lucky and get one day’s work a week. If they go to Mexico, they’re not going to get lucky.”

1. VISTA/BONSALL/FALLBROOK--Upwards of 150 “power off” burglaries are attributed by authorities to two or more illegal aliens posing as migrants looking for work. No arrests have been made, sparking concern among homeowners. The burglars first turn off homes’ power to render alarms inoperative.

2. OCEANSIDE--Numerous migrant workers are camped near verdant farmlands on the northeastern edge of the San Luis Rey Valley, fast becoming a patchwork of urbanization. Residents have voiced complaints.

3. VISTA--Hooches are found near the neighborhoods on the city’s rural northern edge. Residents have reported numerous burglaries they attribute to illegal aliens.

4. CARLSBAD--Migrant workers who camp along Palomar Airport Road directly below condominum developments have brought complaints. Other camps straddle El Camino Real near fast-growing neighborhoods. Carlsbad also appointed a task force to address the problems reported by residents.

5. ENCINITAS--Upward of 150 aliens line Encinitas Boulevard and El Camino Real each morning waiting for jobs. Several camps dotting large swaths of undeveloped property flush with spreading suburbia. Numerous citizen complaints, resulting in city task force to grapple with problem.

6. FAIRBANKS RANCH--About 60 alien workers camp in a ravine now slated for golf course and homes. They congregate at a busy shopping center used by well-heeled residents to wait for day labor jobs.

7. RANCHO PENASQUITOS--Parents of elementary school students, concerned that aliens are congregating near a school bus stop and harassing children, appeal to San Diego police for help. Residents use video cameras to film contractors and others picking up aliens, in hopes of driving illegals out by discouraging employers from hiring them.

8. POWAY--Scores of aliens reside in the bush near sprawling ranch homes in the High Valley and Green Valley areas of north Poway. The rape of a 15-year-old girl, allegedly by a group of illegal aliens, resulted in massive sweep of camps by sheriff’s deputies, prompting praise from some residents and criticism from civil rights groups.