 GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE ISSUES REPORT ON UNDOCUMENTED MIGRATION
Responding to a request from the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, the General Accounting Office this week released a report on the INS’ southwest border strategy. The report focuses on three main areas, first the progress in implementing the strategy, second the effects of the strategy, and finally, what the INS has learned from it. The report confirms what many have long suspected, that the current Border Patrol strategy has not worked, and that the number of border deaths has remained steady. The strategy, embodied in two programs, Operation Gatekeeper and Operation Hold the Line, has built up the number of agents in urban center on the border. It was hoped that by forcing migrants to cross in remote, rural areas, the number of crossers would decrease.
This is not what has happened. The number of migrants attempted to cross the border has not gone down since 1994, although the numbers have decreased dramatically in urban areas. The result is that more and more people are risking their lives trying to cross in less patrolled areas. According to the GAO, which conducts investigations at the behest of Congress, from October 1, 1997, to June 1, 2001, 1,013 migrants died crossing the border. Not surprisingly, nearly 60 percent of these died from exposure, both to extreme heat and extreme cold, which are common in the border deserts.
The border strategy has four phases. The second phase has been ongoing since 1998, involving primarily a buildup of Border Patrol agents along the border. There are currently more than 8,500 agents on the southwest border. However, the INS believes that to fully implement phase two of the strategy, at least another 3,200 agents, and maybe as many as 5,500 additional agents, will be needed.
Migrant advocates have long criticized the current border strategy and argue that more needs to be done to protect migrants. While understanding the need to maintain border security, they believe that such security should not come at the price currently being paid. The INS has increased efforts to educate potential migrants about the dangers of crossing the border and notes that it does appear that fewer people are trying to cross the border. So far this fiscal year, there have been about 1.1 million apprehensions. For the same period last year, the number was 1.43 million. The decline is evenly distributed in each border sector. However, as the GAO report notes, the INS does not track the people that are apprehended, meaning there is no way to know how many apprehensions are of the same person. Because this is important information, and can provide insight into the perception of the strategy by migrants, the GAO recommends the INS begin recording this data.
While the INS does try to track the effectiveness of the border strategy, the GAO notes that it has never conducted a comprehensive review, which the GAO had recommded it do in 1997. Because of the lack of review, plus the length of time that has passed since the strategy was first implemented, the GAO says that the total impact on undocumented migration may never be known. However, it does again call on the INS to study the issue.
According to the GAO, the INS will not be able to complete implementation of the strategy as soon as it was initially planned. Agents have not been as easy to hire as was initially anticipated, and the agency is short on support personnel, meaning agents spent too much time not on patrol. The GAO also recommends that the INS increase its communication with border communities so that they will be better prepared for shifts in migrant traffic. The GAO report on immigration is available online at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d01842.pdf.
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