Border Cable Repair Slows Illegal Entries

Faced with a record number of vehicles being driven illegally across the U.S.-Mexico border in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego, U.S. immigration officials recently repaired the tattered metal cable that serves as the only barrier in that 4-mile stretch of international boundary.

Prompting the cable repair were the many “drive-throughs”--vehicles entering the United States without inspection--observed in May by Border Patrol officers, who spotted 385 suspected border-jumping vehicles. That eclipsed the old record of 360 in July, 1988.

Meanwhile, immigration authorities in Washington, having abandoned a controversial plan to build a ditch to deter unauthorized traffic in the Otay Mesa flatlands, are still contemplating concrete posts as an alternative.

“It’s still under consideration, but there’s no funding yet and no program for implementation,” Duke Austin, a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman in Washington, said.

The posts, known technically as bollards, after dock supports that hold mooring lines for boats, would be to block vehicles; pedestrians could walk around them.

Immigrant advocates and Mexican officials, who objected strenuously to the ditch plan as an affront to Mexico and the people who daily cross the border, have voiced no opposition to the posts. Immigration Commissioner Gene McNary quietly jettisoned the ditch concept shortly after taking office last fall.

Immigrant advocates say that barriers will do little to deter those propelled north by economic need and warfare.

“All they’re really doing is encouraging people to be more resourceful or creative,” said Charles Wheeler, director of the National Immigration Law Center, a Los Angeles-based advocacy group.

The cable repair effort has apparently had some success. The number of vehicles seen entering the country without inspection in the Otay Mesa area dropped to 189 in June, almost 200 fewer than the previous month, according to the Border Patrol.

However, authorities acknowledge that the braided cable strung between metal posts remains an easily pierced barrier. Vandals and smugglers can render the cables useless with a little work.

“The smugglers will eventually be back out cutting it and so forth,” said Michael D. Gregg, a Border Patrol spokesman in San Diego. “This was basically an effort on our part to slow down the traffic.”

Illegal immigration is an escalating problem in the San Diego area, which is considered the most popular illicit crossing zone along the almost-2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

About 40% of all arrests of unauthorized immigrants borderwide occur in a 12-mile strip of San Diego. So far in fiscal 1990, immigration agents based in San Diego have made 350,000 arrests, a 45% increase over the same period the previous fiscal year.

The Otay Mesa area--a 4-mile, flat expanse of grassland to the east of the giant port of entry at San Ysidro--has long been favored by smugglers using vehicles to ferry undocumented immigrants and illicit drugs into the United States. Rugged hills and canyons characterize other parts of the San Diego-Tijuana city limits.

In Tijuana, a major east-west roadway parallels the cable marking the border along Otay Mesa, providing quick access to a number of dirt roads on the U.S. side. Those dirt roads lead to California 905, which, in turn, connects with Interstates 5 and 805, principal routes to the north.

The north side of boundary cable is dotted with the rusting hulks of cars and trucks, mostly stolen vehicles that were abandoned by smugglers who were chased back into Mexico by U.S. immigration authorities. Scavengers quickly strip the vehicles for parts.

But the vast majority of illegal immigrants simply walk across the border, over rugged terrain that provides ample hiding spaces and is closer to San Ysidro. The terrain also provides more difficult access for roaming U.S. immigration agents.

A chain-link fence stretches across most of the popular illegal crossing zones; smugglers and border-jumpers frequently use wire cutters to slice huge gaps in the fence, which is often trampled to the ground.

Advocates of increased border enforcement have been lobbying for improved fences and other barriers. But U.S. authorities say no plans are in the works for new barriers, which are costly, and, many say, of questionable value.

And, as the ditch controversy demonstrated, new projects are politically sensitive.

The upkeep of existing barriers, however, seldom generates opposition.

In the past two years, U.S. immigration officials have been replacing sections of the tattered border fence with what appears to be a more effective alternative--strips of metal matting designed to be used for portable aircraft landing strips. The perforated sheets of military surplus matting, welded into place by Border Patrol crews, now reinforce some sections of the oft-severed boundary fence.

“We haven’t seen it cut yet,” said Ted Swofford, supervisory agent of the Border Patrol.