INS Reports Success in Border Crackdown : Illegal crossing: Decline in captures at Imperial Beach choke-point means strategy is working, officials say.

Stepped-up enforcement along the Mexican border in California has succeeded in stemming the flow of illegal immigrants near the Imperial Beach station, senior Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said Thursday.

The assessment, which INS Commissioner Doris Meissner is expected to give to the House today, is important on two grounds: Imperial Beach has traditionally accounted for more captures than any other Border Patrol station, and the drop-off there comes after the INS instituted a strategy of pushing attempted border-crossers to the east, where the Border Patrol has advantages.

Immigration officials base their favorable assessment on a decline in captures, the first review of fingerprint records of those caught and interviews on both sides of the border.

An internal report on border enforcement evaluation prepared for Meissner cited another indication that the crackdown, known as Operation Gatekeeper, is having an impact: The average price to an illegal immigrant for being smuggled across the border to Los Angeles has climbed from $300 before Operation Gatekeeper began in October to as much as $450.

Imperial Beach station captures dropped to 8,268 in January from 15,648 a year earlier--a 47% decline--and to 8,187 in February, down 41% from 13,984 in February, 1994, according to the INS.

But as added agents and sophisticated tracking gear were introduced at Imperial Beach, would-be violators turned to Border Patrol stations to the east--Chula Vista, where captures jumped 58% in February, and Brown Field, where they increased 90% last month over the year-ago totals.

This is in line with INS strategy because flatter terrain and less population gives the Border Patrol a better chance of catching those attempting illegal entry.

Although the Border Patrol plan forecasts that captures will remain high “for some time” before leveling off, it is not certain when that will occur.

In January, 69 agents were added to the Chula Visa and Brown Field stations, and 48 more will be assigned there when the next class of agents graduates on March 27.

The Gatekeeper-introduced practice of fingerprinting border violators to establish multiple attempts provides “clear evidence for the first time that the shift to the east is a result of frustrating illegal attempts by the same individual aliens at Imperial Beach,” the internal report says.

Interviews of nearly 1,000 captured illegal immigrants and of more than 200 migrants in Mexican border towns support the assessment of initial success, according to the report. Those interviewed said that it is much harder to cross into San Diego now than before Gatekeeper, that smuggling activities have been disrupted and that some would-be crossers are so frustrated that they are returning to their homes in Mexico’s interior.

The report found the migrant flow through San Diego was made up of four groups. The smallest includes “first-timers,” many of whom lack the knowledge and resources to pay to surmount the increased security. They are among the first to return home or look for work in Tijuana when they fail to get into the United States.

The next largest group is frequent crossers, usually headed for Los Angeles. They also are likely to become frustrated and to change their plans, the report says.

The other two groups will take longer to deter, the report states. One is the seasonal, long-term migrants, who know that they have jobs waiting for them in the California fields or in the service sector and who have detailed knowledge of ways to cross the border.

In the fourth group are those with family in the United States, who returned to Mexico for the holidays and were caught attempting to re-enter. “Achieving deterrence with this group will be the most difficult,” the report says.