FIFTH YEAR OF OPERATION GATEKEEPER STIRS DEBATE

As Operation Gatekeeper, an all-out effort to restrict illegal entry into the US near San Diego, California, enters its sixth year on October 1, 1999, the debate surrounding it is as heated as when the program was first started.  The program appears to be a spectacular success, with arrests in the San Diego area down from 524,231 in 1994 to just over 181,000 this year.  The 66 miles covered by Operation Gatekeeper once accounted for one-half of all arrests for illegal entry.

The principal features of Operation Gatekeeper have been a dramatic increase in the number of Border Patrol agents stationed in the San Diego area and an increase in the amount of high-tech surveillance equipment used in patrolling the border.  The overall budget for the Border Patrol has increased from $374 million in 1994 to $952 million this year, and the number of Border Patrol agents stationed in the southwest has also doubled.

However, this news is dampened by the concurrent increase in overall arrests for illegal entry along the entire US-Mexico border.  During 1999 there were about 1.5 million arrests along the border, which is 20% more than in 1994, Operation Gatekeeper’s first year.  Another drawback to the success of the program is the increasing number of people who have died attempting to cross the border in more remote locations.  Since the program went into effect, at least 444 people have died. 

As manpower and technology increase at populated border crossings such as San Diego and El Paso, those seeking to cross are pushed into more and more isolated regions where they suffer from heat and exposure.  The increased difficulty in crossing has led to growth in the smuggling business.  According to Jordan Budd, an ACLU attorney in the San Diego area, “Operation Gatekeeper has merely shifted the problem from where the migration happens most significantly in the public eye to where it is less noticed.”

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