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 BORDER NEWS
In the nearly two months since the September 11th terrorist attacks, apprehensions of undocumented border crossers have plummeted. The number apprehended near Tijuana in September was 15,273, 26 percent lower than the previous month. On the US side of the border, between October 1 and October 16, 20,454 people were stopped, more than 50 percent less than the same period last year.
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Delays to enter the US at land borders continue to be substantial, and there is increasing concern about the long term impact on trade that could result. While laws have been approved to increase the number of Border Patrol and Customs agents on the Canadian border, they have yet to be implemented. In the meanwhile, the presence on the northern border is being supported by National Guard troops.
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Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), a long-time opponent of immigration, has taken up the cause of a Border Patrol agent who says he was fired because he wanted to testify before Congress. The agent, who has asked to not be identified, was initially given permission to testify before Tancredo’s Immigration Reform Caucus. Tancredo says he was later contacted by the Justice Department and told the agent would not be allowed to testify at all. He believes this is because the agent was going to testify about the conflict in the INS mission between serving immigrants and preventing unauthorized immigration. The INS says the agent was released for medical reasons.
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The lands of the Tohono O’odham Native American tribe straddle the US-Mexico border in Arizona and Sonora. Tribal members, whether born in the US or Mexico, are to be allowed free passage across the border. However, since the border crackdown that began in the mid-1990s, members say they have been harassed by Border Patrol agents, and in some cases even arrested. A bill has been introduced to address the situation, by making tribal identity cards equivalent to US passports, but the bill is still sitting in the Immigration Subcommittee, and the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ed Pastor (D-AZ), says the chances of the bill passing this year are slim.
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The man prosecutors say was the leader of an effort to smuggle Chinese nationals into the US in containers aboard cargo ships pleaded guilty this week. Eighteen men traveled across the Pacific Ocean in a container aboard the ship the Cape May. When they were discovered in Seattle in January 2000, three were dead, and a fourth died shortly afterward. Chao Kang Lin faces up to life in prison. Two other defendants have already pled guilty.
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According to the INS, 50 percent fewer people were apprehended attempting to enter the US from Mexico last month than the same period last year. A total of 37,811 people were apprehended during October, nearly 82,000 fewer than last year. Combining the totals for both September and October, there was a more than 30 percent decrease from last year. Officials believe that the September 11th terrorist attacks, combined with a rapidly slowing US economy, are the primary factors for the decrease.
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