U.S. Routinely Frees These Illegal Crossers

Several times a day, a chain-link gate rolls open and dozens of illegal immigrants stroll out of the U.S. Border Patrol station here, blinking into the hot sun as they look for taxis to the bus station and a ticket out of town.

Each holds a piece of paper that Spanish speakers call a permiso -- permission, courtesy of the U.S. government, to roam the country freely.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, more than 118,000 undocumented immigrants who were caught after sneaking over the nation’s borders walked out of custody with a permiso in hand.

They have been from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil. But also Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen -- among 35 countries of “special interest” because of alleged sponsorship or support of terrorism.

These are the so-called OTM, or “other than Mexican,” migrants too far from their homelands to be shipped right back. More than 70,000 have hit U.S. streets since October.

The Border Patrol has caught them riding inner tubes across the Rio Grande or trekking through farm fields. But the government has no place to put all the “OTMs” while they await deportation hearings, so they are released with a notice to appear in immigration court.

Many don’t show -- disappearing, instead, among the estimated 10 million undocumented immigrants living in America.

In the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2001, 5,251 non-Mexicans were freed on their own recognizance from Border Patrol custody, according to statistics the agency provided. In fiscal year 2002, that rose to 5,725. Fiscal 2003: 7,972. Fiscal 2004: 34,161.

Last year’s number included at least 91 illegal immigrants from “special interest” countries.

Releases have soared again this year. With four months left in the fiscal cycle, 70,624 OTMs have been released on their own recognizance -- 70% of all non-Mexicans apprehended by the Border Patrol. Among them have been 50 undocumented migrants from “special interest” countries, Border Patrol spokesman Salvador Zamora said.

Authorities stress that apprehended illegal immigrants are routinely screened and detained if they are believed to pose a risk. Individuals from “special interest” nations are not necessarily more of a terrorist threat, they note.

Still, front-line Immigration and Customs officers are concerned that so many who enter the country illegally are systematically set free.

“I absolutely believe that the next attack we have will come from somebody who has come across the border illegally,” said Eugene Davis, retired deputy chief of the Border Patrol sector in Blaine, Wash. “To me, we have no more border security now than we had prior to Sept. 11. Anybody who believes we’re safer, they’re living in Neverland.”

Outside the Harlingen patrol station, an agent grumbled recently that he had dislocated his shoulder to catch one group that had walked free in no time.

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The afternoon is quickly fading as 20 illegal immigrants sit under a hackberry tree near the Rio Grande.

“I betcha dollars to doughnuts that there’s a bunch of OTMs in there,” Border Patrol agent Eddie Flores says, swinging his SUV to a stop. He’s right: This group consists of one Honduran, six Brazilians and 13 Costa Ricans, all unfazed at being caught by immigration officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. One Brazilian woman even smiles before firing off something in Portuguese.

Agent Julio Garcia translates: “They’re depending on me.”

They’re depending on the very system charged with capturing unlawful entrants to help them go free. Nowadays, OTMs often flock to Border Patrol agents rather than fleeing them.

Of the 834,731 apprehensions made by the Border Patrol so far this fiscal year, 100,142 were of non-Mexicans. That’s a 137% increase from the 42,167 non-Mexicans arrested in 2001.

Illegal immigrants from Mexico and Canada typically depart voluntarily and can be returned home almost immediately upon being caught. Those from other countries must undergo deportation proceedings and await flights to their nations. A growing number of those are freed with a notice-to-appear because of lack of holding space.

The arrangement is most common in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, where 91% of non-Mexicans caught by Border Patrol agents are freed, statistics show.

Most of those arrested in the region are from Brazil, Honduras and El Salvador. But arrests of illegal immigrants from the 35 “special interest” countries doubled from two dozen in fiscal 2003 to about four dozen in fiscal 2004, according to internal Border Patrol statistics obtained by the Associated Press.

Nationally, Zamora said, 644 migrants from “special interest” countries were apprehended by the Border Patrol in fiscal 2004. More than 450 have been nabbed so far this fiscal year.

Detention space, meanwhile, has barely grown.

Congress in the last two years has funded 19,444 immigration detention beds nationally, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Manny Van Pelt said. An extra 1,950 bed spaces were approved in May.

The Border Patrol checks arrestees’ names against terrorist watch lists and crime databases. Unless the detainee is a convict or is on a watch list, Immigration and Customs Enforcement generally has no holding space available -- and they go free.”It’s creating an environment in which people can go around unnoticed and Customs Enforcement d,” said James Edwards Jr. of the conservative Hudson Institute think tank. “They can easily obtain false identities. ... That’s a mighty big risk to take.”

Zamora said that 91 of the 644 arrestees from “special interest” countries in fiscal 2004 were released, and that the others were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for detention. However, the Border Patrol refused to provide the AP with a country-by-country breakdown of immigrants released on their own recognizance.

Immigrants from terror-watch countries are vetted not only by Border Patrol agents and criminal database checks but also by federal Joint Terrorism Task Force investigators, Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said.

“An alien from a special-interest country who presents absolutely no risk -- is that someone you’re going to detain? Or are you going to detain a drug dealer or a child predator from a country that’s not on the special-interest country list?” he says.

Authorities say that a new “expedited removal” program, focusing on the quick return of non-Mexicans to their home countries, has resulted in 7,000 deportations.

Still, word is out among immigrants that if they can make it across the border, they might get walking papers.

“I had 46 of them standing there at the side of the road. That’s the first thing they ask me: ‘Immigration?’ ” said Joe Serna, one of two Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in La Grulla, 65 miles west of Harlingen. “Best we can do is check them for weapons.”

Homeland Security officials say spotting would-be terrorists is border guards’ priority. But veteran line officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement note databases cannot always detect whether a migrant is using a fake name. And while the Immigration and Customs officers are processing OTMs, other illegal entrants are getting by.

Pakistani Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed was arrested last July at the McAllen, Texas, airport as she tried to board a plane to New York. She carried $7,300 in various nations’ currencies and a passport with pages missing. Agents later learned she had waded across the Rio Grande. She was deported in March.

In February, the reputed leader of the Mara Salvatrucha gang was arrested after he crossed into Texas. Ever Anibal Rivera Paz was found 100 miles north of the Rio Grande, hiding in the trunk of a car. He had escaped from a Honduran prison where he was charged with masterminding a deadly bus attack. He is jailed in Houston.

Others who are caught, and then released, fail to show up for immigration hearings.

The Harlingen Immigration Court, one of 53 in the nation, had more no-shows than any other: 87% of migrants failed to appear and were ordered deported in absentia in fiscal 2004. Nationally, the failure-to-appear rate was about 22%.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement estimates that 465,000 undocumented immigrants -- visa overstays, illegal entrants and others unlawfully in the States -- have received final orders of removal but remain at large. Among them are four of the six Brazilians whom Flores and Garcia apprehended under the hackberry tree.