Added Agents to Bolster S.D. Border Patrols

U.S. Atty. Gen. William P. Barr wrapped up a visit Monday to the most highly politicized, highly traversed 15 miles of border territory in the country, drawing praise and criticism for his plan to strengthen the Border Patrol.

At least half of the 300 new Border Patrol agents to be hired in a new expansion of the Immigration and Naturalization Service will probably be assigned to the San Diego area, Border Patrol officials said.

The plan, announced Sunday, provides the largest staff increase since 1986 for the Border Patrol in the San Diego sector of the U.S.-Mexico border, where manpower levels have remained at or near 800 agents. The sector accounts for nearly half of all arrests of illegal immigrants nationwide.

Barr told a gathering of law enforcement officials in Coronado that he wants to help immigrants who enter the U.S. by the “front door” of the legal immigration process and get tough on illegal immigrants who are “crashing in the back door.”

“Many of these people simply want better lives, and our hearts go out to them,” said Barr, who on Sunday night toured the crowded river banks and canyons where thousands of people try to cross the border illegally each day. Agents apprehended 3,300 people Sunday.

“But we must protect the integrity of our immigration process,” Barr said. “We have a special commitment to preserving the integrity of our borders and of our immigration process.”

Barr’s plan was assailed Monday by immigration experts and human rights advocates on both sides of the border. They charged that the initiative is an election-year gambit spurred by the economic recession and increasing anti-immigrant rhetoric on the campaign trail.

“They are continuing to look at the border as a war zone,” said Roberto Martinez of the American Friends Service Committee in San Diego. “Immigration is a human rights issue and an economic issue, but that doesn’t sell. What sells is crime and drugs. It’s easier to lump the issue together, that way they can justify this kind of buildup.”

Barr spokesman Paul McNulty disputed the charge that the announcement was politically motivated.

“That’s flat out wrong,” he said. McNulty also said the timing was not affected by widely broadcast video images of illegal immigrants running across the border into freeway traffic, a practice that Mexican authorities halted last week under pressure from the Border Patrol.

Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at UC San Diego, said he does not believe the measures will significantly decrease illegal immigration from Mexico.

“Of course they will be catching more people,” he said. “(But) the deterrent effect of all this is likely to be as limited as similar measures have been in the past.”

Additional agents will probably make illegal crossings more difficult for women and children, who already appear to have been impeded by an 8-mile fence at the border, Cornelius said. And smugglers of illegal immigrants will probably hike their fees, he said.

“It is a price (illegal immigrants) are still willing to pay,” Cornelius said. He said the proposed North American Free Trade Pact currently under negotiation with Mexico is “the only approach likely to make a significant dent in this problem in the long run.”

The Mexican government has yet to comment officially on the INS expansion, according to the Mexican Consulate in San Diego.

But the state human rights prosecutor for the state of Baja California, immigration expert Jose Luis Perez Canchola, said the border buildup could lead to increased tension and confrontation.

“For the Mexican, it is more risky to stay in his hometown where there is no future than to confront the Border Patrol,” he said. “I think it could lead to more violence, more desperation. I hope the Mexican government is going to call for respect of Mexicans whether they have papers or not.”

In addition to adding about 700 new employees to speed processing of legal immigrants, Barr’s plan provides surplus military vehicles and equipment for border enforcement and more resources against illegal immigrants who commit crimes, including 200 investigators and a national tracking center targeting street gang members and other “criminal aliens.”

Another 200 Border Patrol agents have been requested in next year’s proposed federal budget, which calls for a 13% increase for the INS, Barr said.

The new agents could be in place as soon as four months, allowing the Border Patrol to step up operations at the border and expand its presence in inland areas such as North County, according to San Diego sector Chief Agent Gustavo de la Vina.

“We need ‘em as soon as we can get ‘em,” De la Vina said.