Halting Illegals at Border Now All-Year Work

U.S. Border Patrol agents here are arresting record numbers of undocumented immigrants during the current winter season, which many experts say underscores a fundamental shift toward year-round illicit immigration.

U.S. officials have long viewed November and December as a relatively slow period for illegal immigration, a time after the agricultural harvests when many undocumented foreign-born residents head south to visit their families in Mexico and Central America.

But border guards in the San Diego area now recording almost 1,000 arrests a day--a record pace for the month.

The brisk pace comes after agents based in San Diego recorded 33,687 arrests in November, an increase of 22% over November, 1989, eclipsing the previous November record set in 1985.

Officials trace the current winter upswing to a variety of factors, including the continued economic problems in Mexico and the increased tendency of immigrants to relocate permanently in the north rather than migrate back and forth.

“I don’t think we’re seeing as much of the so-called ‘seasonal’ immigration as we used to see,” said Ted Swofford, supervisory Border Patrol agent in San Diego, the busiest site for both legal and illegal traffic along the almost 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. “We’re finding that people are coming 12 months a year.”

To be sure, the spring and summer--the traditional time of the northward emigration--continue to be the busiest along the border area. But authorities say the heavier winter numbers demonstrate how illicit immigration has become very much a year-round phenomenon--particularly in the San Diego area, the principal illicit gateway for the huge immigrant job markets of Los Angeles and elsewhere in California. And the gap between spring and winter is narrowing--November immigration increased by a much larger percentage than the figures for May.

Agricultural laborers, whose treks to the United States tend to be seasonalnow account for about 15% of illicit border-crossers, a much smaller number than a decade ago, according to research conducted at the UC San Diego Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies and elsewhere. Immigrants now find work in a wide variety of settings, from the fields to factories to construction sites.

Academic researchers on both sides of the border have found that women and children are increasingly making the voyage north, underlining the intention of many new immigrants to remain in the United States permanently.

“Ten years ago, everyone said they would come to the north for six or eight months and then return to Mexico,” noted Jose Luis Perez Canchola, who heads an immigration study center in Tijuana. “But now, the idea is to stay. People see no economic alternative in Mexico. The Mexican government has done nothing to provide them with alternatives.”

In addition, researchers have found that Mexicans are coming from throughout Mexico, not just from traditional emigrant states such as Michoacan, Zacatecas and Jalisco. For instance, many new immigrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border are from Mexico City, the world’s most populous metropolis. In addition, middle-class Mexicans now are leaving alongside poorer countrymen, researchers say. Mexican citizens continue to account for more than 90% of undocumented immigrants arrested along the U.S.-Mexico border. Most of the non-Mexicans arrested are from Central America, but authorities say fewer Central Americans are making it to U.S. territory, apparently because of intensified enforcement efforts in Mexico, which must be traversed by Salvadorans, Guatemalans and others headed overland for the United States.

Winter declines in illegal immigration via the border remain more pronounced in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, authorities say. But officials say the continued economic downturn in Texas and other states with large immigrant populations may have persuaded many prospective immigrants to head to California, entering U.S. territory through the San Diego area.

California, despite its current economic difficulties, apparently continues to provide ample job opportunities to undocumented new arrivals, attracting more and more immigrants from south of the border.

“The kinds of jobs that readily appeal to the undocumented alien are readily available here (in California),” noted Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for Ben Davidian, Los Angeles-based regional commissioner for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. “There appears to continue to be more opportunities here than in other parts of the country.”

Border Patrol agents based in San Diego recorded almost 500,000 arrests in the most recent fiscal year, an increase of almost 30% over the previous year.