New Hires Beef Up Border Patrol but Not Enough to Stem the Flow

About 60 recent new hires have elevated U.S. Border Patrol staffing in San Diego to about 775 agents, the highest level in two years.

But authorities say the patrol remains understaffed in its mission to thwart illegal immigration.

For lawmen, the problem is one of the most vexing consequences of a staff shortage that has plagued the U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego for years.

On Sunday mornings, the preferred time of movement for many smugglers of illegal aliens, U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to monitor the traffic in San Diego often face a frustrating reality: They cannot arrest and transport every illegal alien moving north.

Frequently, agents say, all their vehicles fill up with prisoners within a few hours, and no backup officers are available to fill in the gap. So the smugglers have an edge.

“We just don’t have any place to put ‘em,” one senior agent assigned to Interstate 5 said earlier this year as he scanned likely smuggling loads rumbling up the freeway toward Los Angeles.

Many immigrant advocates argue that any increase in Border Patrol staffing is unlikely to stem the constant flow of humanity that crosses the U.S.-Mexico border each day, driven by economic need and political turmoil.

However, U.S. policy-makers have contended for more than half a decade that the presence of a sufficient force of border guards is an effective deterrent against illegal immigration.

Although the patrol is a nationwide enforcement arm, officials say the staff shortage is particularly acute in San Diego, which is considered the most used illicit crossing zone along the 2,000 mile U.S.-Mexico border. And almost half of all illegal aliens who go over the U.S.-Mexico border are believed to cross along a 10-mile stretch in San Diego.

Illegal immigration is increasing throughout the border area, officials say. In San Diego, arrests of undocumented immigrants have increased by about 30% during the current fiscal year from the corresponding period the previous year, said Ted Swofford, a patrol spokesman in San Diego.

And Sunday was the busiest day of 1990 for San Diego agents, who recorded 2,773 arrests of undocumented immigrants, most of them apprehended within about a mile of the international boundary. That number is more than twice the daily current average of about 1,300 arrests in the San Diego area.

The great majority of those caught are Mexican nationals who agree to return to Mexico within hours. Once back in Tijuana, many immediately try to re-cross the border, which is mostly marked by a weak fence and a tattered metal cable.

The San Diego Border Patrol sector covers all of San Diego County and parts of Orange and Riverside counties. The 775 agents now on duty here include about 60 officers who have joined the staff within the past two months.

Immigration and Naturalization Commissioner Gene McNary has publicly vowed to try to increase staffing in San Diego to 1,000 agents by the end of 1990. That pledge still stands, although it is unclear where the funding will come from, a spokesman said.

“San Diego is certainly where our heaviest problem is,” said Duke Austin, spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, parent body of the Border Patrol.

The broad-ranging 1986 reforms of U.S. immigration law called for a 50% increase in Border Patrol staffing. In November 1986, when the law was signed, about 850 agents were assigned to San Diego.

However, the Reagan Administration never pressed for money for the staff increase, and Congress never appropriated it.

Meanwhile, high attrition rates and a subsequent yearlong Border Patrol hiring freeze cut deeply into manpower in San Diego. By early this year, the number of agents in San Diego had declined to about 715 officers, a four-year low and a drop of more than 15% from 1986.