Illegal Immigration

Last year I had the opportunity to join members of the U.S. Border Patrol on a tour of the San Diego/San Ysidro section of the U.S.-Mexico Border. I handled immigration related concerns for Congressman Beauprez and was eager for the opportunity to view the situation at the border firsthand. What I saw gave me a new appreciation for the challenges of securing our southern border and the difficulties faced by those charged with the responsibility of seeing it through.

The San Diego Sector is responsible for a relatively small portion of the overall U.S.-Mexico border but still includes more than 7,000 square miles of total terrain, including 931 linear miles of coastline and 66 linear miles of international boundary with Mexico. Prior to 1994, the five and one-half miles of border from the Pacific Ocean to the San Ysidro Port-of-Entry was an area that accounted for nearly a quarter of apprehensions nationwide. Hundreds of illegal immigrants would cross the border and gather each day, on U.S. soil, and then dash northward once darkness descended. A Border Patrol agent would stop a few unlucky people but most would enter the United States untouched. The Border Patrol was literally being overrun.

However, the dynamic at the border shifted significantly with the implementation of an October 1994 initiative aptly named Operation Gatekeeper. This was a new strategic plan that shifted the operational emphasis from apprehension to deterrence and prevention, primarily through the use of fences, an increase in personnel, and a shift in tactics. As a result of these efforts, apprehensions decreased from 524,231 in FY 1995 to 126,908 in FY 2005.

The most visible change made in the area was the construction of a triple layer fence that effectively eliminated illegal vehicle traffic and large group crossings of the border. But the system is not perfect and people still find ways to get past it. For example, the second fence is 15 ft high with a 6 ft extension on the top that faces south at a 45 degree angle. The obvious goal of the extension was to stop people from simply climbing over the fence but soon people started to use homemade collapsible ladders that connect to the overhang and allow them to climb the ladder instead of the fence. That being said, the fence system as a whole, combined with more Border Patrol agents and the use of biometrics, has been effective. The Border Patrol now has a method with which it can identify repeat offenders, guides, and smugglers, and the fence has been such a deterrent that immigrant traffic has largely been shifted away from this area and out into the southwestern desert.

Although the new procedures put into place were seemingly effective in securing the border I soon realized that there were many complicating factors that needed to be considered. Not least of which is the fact that nearly 2 million people live within very close proximity to the border in the Mexican cities of Tijuana and Tecate. One must consider the threat of tunnels (a 2400 ft tunnel was discovered last year), the presence of irrigation pipes, vandalism to the fence itself, rugged terrain in portions of the sector, and the utter disregard for human life exhibited by smugglers to realize that this problem cannot be solved by fences alone.

Unfortunately the increase in security at the border has led to an increase in violence as well. Among the greatest risks for the Border Patrol are “rockings.” The area is covered with rocks the size of baseballs and agents are constantly being pelted with rocks that can easily maim or kill them. Smugglers are even using slingshots loaded with ball bearings that were reported to have equivalently the same stopping power as a .22 caliber bullet. There have been isolated instances of shots being fired and there have even been occasions where people have lit tires filled with gasoline and rolled them at the Border Patrol in an effort to either injure or distract them while they made their crossing attempt.

At the conclusion of the tour I asked the Patrol Agent in Charge what he would like me to tell my boss about the situation he and his agents are dealing with at the border. His answer was one I had heard a thousand times before from just about every government official I had ever spoken to, "We need more resources." Seeing the situation firsthand, however, this was one of the few times I agreed wholeheartedly.

More people are needed to man the border. More cameras, both standard and infrared, are needed in the remote areas where a fence in the middle of nowhere makes little sense. More intermediate weapons are needed to respond to the "rockings" taking place (i.e. a pepper ball launcher system). More seismic sensors are needed to detect movement of potential crossers. More lights are needed since most of the crossings occur at night. More roads are needed to get safely and quickly to the areas in need. More night vision goggles are needed as they are in limited supply and most of the goggles in their possession have been seized from smugglers. And more fences are needed in the populated areas. It’s not enough to simply build one fence. You need a triple fence to give a layer of protection and give agents time to respond to an area that has been compromised.

Operation Gatekeeper has demonstrated that it is actually possible to secure our southern border. It has deterred and shifted illegal alien traffic away from the area, smuggling operations have been disrupted, and crime rates are down while property values are up. However, this is just a small portion of the overall border and this level of enforcement is expensive. The time has come for the American people and their elected leaders to decide if they really want to secure our southern border and, if so, to allocate the resources necessary to achieve that end.