The Arizona Republic: In an effort to deter illegal immigrants from sneaking back across the border as soon as they are deported, the Border Patrol is increasingly taking those caught in southern Arizona and busing them to Texas and California, where they are then sent back to Mexico.
Busing illegal immigrants to other border states makes it harder for them to reconnect with the smuggling guides who help migrants illegally cross into the U.S., the Border Patrol says.
Napolitano at U.S.-Mexico border
"What that does is break up that smuggling cycle so that they are not going to keep coming through kind of a revolving door," said Colleen Agle, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, which covers most of Arizona's border with Mexico.
The Border Patrol has been shipping illegal immigrants caught in Arizona, the main entry point for illegal border crossers, to other border states for several years. But last year, the number of transfers, known as lateral repatriations, skyrocketed.
From Oct. 1, 2010, through July 30, the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector transferred 43,806 illegal immigrants arrested in Arizona to Texas or California. That is 128 percent more than the number transferred during all of 2010, according to Border Patrol statistics. Statistics for all 12 months of the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, are not yet available.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who was in Nogales on Sunday to tour part of the border on horseback, praised the lateral transfers. They are part of stepped-up efforts to deter illegal immigration by imposing consequences on illegal border crossers instead of simply returning them to Mexico.
"There are a number of things that all together are acting as deterrents to recidivist crossers in particular," Napolitano said. "All those added together make it less and less appealing to try and cross this very forbidding terrain."
The transfers are effective in reducing the number of repeat crossers, Agle said.
Through July, 27 percent of the illegal immigrants bused from Arizona were caught trying to re-enter the U.S., she said. That is down from 33 percent in 2010 and 34 percent in 2009. The Tucson Sector's overall recidivism rate is much higher. Between 2000 and 2010, 41 percent of illegal immigrants arrested by the Border Patrol were caught trying to re-enter at least once, according to data released by Customs and Border Protection following a Freedom of Information Act request by The Arizona Republic. Borderwide, the recidivism rate is 38 percent.
The Border Patrol says the transfers are done almost exclusively out of Arizona. The only other state to transfer out illegal immigrants is California, which sends a small number to Arizona's San Luis port for deportation.
The transfers, however, are controversial.
Immigrant advocates say the practice puts illegal immigrants in danger.
"People are then sent to ports of entry or locations where they do not have any resources to try to get back home, or to dangerous ports of entry ... where there are high crimes rates or high drug-trafficking crimes rates," said Victoria Lopez, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union office in Phoenix.
Some humanitarian groups have also raised concerns that the transfers separate families.
A September report by No More Deaths, a Tucson humanitarian group, based on interviews with more than 12,800 illegal immigrants deported by the Border Patrol, found 869 family members who had been removed separately, including 17 children and 41 teens. The separations often occurred after the Border Patrol transferred illegal immigrants to other states so they could be deported through ports far from where they were apprehended, the report said.
Agle, however, said the Border Patrol does not separate families. The Border Patrol selects only men between the ages of 20 and 60 traveling without family members for the transfer program, in part for safety reasons, she said.
Alan Bersin, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, the agency that oversees the Border Patrol, toured the border on horseback with Napolitano. He said he has heard complaints that the transfers break up families, but he has not seen hard evidence of that happening.
He said both CBP and the Department of Homeland Security's civil-rights division are investigating the allegations.
Illegal immigrants arrested in southern Arizona are bused from Tucson to the Del Rio or Eagle Pass ports of entry in Texas or to the Calexico or San Ysidro ports of entry in California, Agle said.
The transfers are part of stepped-up efforts to deter illegal immigration by imposing consequences even to illegal immigrants caught by the Border Patrol for the first time. In the past, repeat illegal border crossers were often just sent back after being processed and fingerprinted. Many often reconnected with smugglers in Mexico and attempted to cross again.
During the deadly summer months, some illegal immigrants caught by the Border Patrol in southern Arizona are turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and flown to the interior of Mexico. And since January, the Border Patrol has been prosecuting illegal border crossers on federal criminal charges, rather than simply returning them to Mexico.
The increase in transfers from Arizona to other border states contributed to an overall drop in deportations last year in Arizona.
Federal immigration officials in Arizona deported 56,198 people last year, a nearly 40 percent drop from the previous year, and the first decrease since 2005. But while deportations in Arizona are down, they are up nationally. ICE deported a record number of illegal immigrants last year, 396,906 nationwide compared with 392,862, ICE officials said.
Without the transfers, the number of deportations in Arizona would not have been down dramatically.
What's more, deportations in California and Texas increased significantly last year because of the transfers, said Vincent Picard, a spokesman for ICE.
Last year, ICE deportations increased by 15,000 in the El Paso area and by 8,000 in the San Antonio area, Picard said.
ICE deportations in the San Diego area increased by 15,000 last year, he said.
Picard said several other factors contributed to last year's drop in deportations in Arizona.
The Arizona number includes illegal immigrants arrested in Arizona as well as those arrested in other Western states and transferred to detention centers in Arizona for removal.
- With illegal immigration down, the Border Patrol is arresting fewer illegal immigrants, which means fewer illegal immigrants are being turned over to ICE for removal, Picard said.
The Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, the nation's busiest, arrested 116,463 illegal immigrants from Oct. 1, 2010, through Aug. 30, 2011, Agle said. That is down nearly 43 percent from the 203,563 arrested during the same period the previous year.
- Calls from local police encountering illegal immigrants inside either smuggling vehicles or drophouses are also down, Picard said. ICE identified 2,741 illegal immigrants through such calls last year, down nearly 33 percent from the 4,081 the year before.
- Removals through ICE's 287(g) program, which allows local police trained by ICE to enforce immigration laws, also dropped from 11,667 in fiscal year 2010 to 7,609 last year, Picard said. That was a nearly 35 percent decrease.
Luis Avila, president of Somos America, a coalition of immigrant-advocacy groups, said the decrease in deportations in Arizona does not mean fewer people are being deported. They are only being deported through other states, he said.
Napolitano and Bersin arrived in Nogales on Sunday from Washington, D.C., on a military jet. They met briefly with about 50 Border Patrol agents before touring the border on horseback for about an hour.
Napolitano and a dozen agents rode several miles along Potrero Canyon, with commanding views of the rugged terrain west of Nogales. The area is vast and desolate, and Napolitano, an experienced rider, weaved her chestnut-colored quarter horse Hunter, borrowed from the Border Patrol, through stands of thorny mesquite trees and ocotillo bushes.
"Nothing beats coming out and seeing for yourself and talking with the agents, and in this case getting on a horse and getting out and seeing some of the terrain," she said.
A decade ago the area was overrun by illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. But now, agents catch illegal immigrants in this area only occasionally.
"The difference between Nogales now versus Nogales in the nineties or even the early part of this century," she said, "it really is quite clear the amount of manpower the technology, the assets that are deployed down here - it's just a different world than it was."
Busing illegal immigrants to other border states makes it harder for them to reconnect with the smuggling guides who help migrants illegally cross into the U.S., the Border Patrol says.
Napolitano at U.S.-Mexico border
"What that does is break up that smuggling cycle so that they are not going to keep coming through kind of a revolving door," said Colleen Agle, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, which covers most of Arizona's border with Mexico.
The Border Patrol has been shipping illegal immigrants caught in Arizona, the main entry point for illegal border crossers, to other border states for several years. But last year, the number of transfers, known as lateral repatriations, skyrocketed.
From Oct. 1, 2010, through July 30, the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector transferred 43,806 illegal immigrants arrested in Arizona to Texas or California. That is 128 percent more than the number transferred during all of 2010, according to Border Patrol statistics. Statistics for all 12 months of the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, are not yet available.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who was in Nogales on Sunday to tour part of the border on horseback, praised the lateral transfers. They are part of stepped-up efforts to deter illegal immigration by imposing consequences on illegal border crossers instead of simply returning them to Mexico.
"There are a number of things that all together are acting as deterrents to recidivist crossers in particular," Napolitano said. "All those added together make it less and less appealing to try and cross this very forbidding terrain."
The transfers are effective in reducing the number of repeat crossers, Agle said.
Through July, 27 percent of the illegal immigrants bused from Arizona were caught trying to re-enter the U.S., she said. That is down from 33 percent in 2010 and 34 percent in 2009. The Tucson Sector's overall recidivism rate is much higher. Between 2000 and 2010, 41 percent of illegal immigrants arrested by the Border Patrol were caught trying to re-enter at least once, according to data released by Customs and Border Protection following a Freedom of Information Act request by The Arizona Republic. Borderwide, the recidivism rate is 38 percent.
The Border Patrol says the transfers are done almost exclusively out of Arizona. The only other state to transfer out illegal immigrants is California, which sends a small number to Arizona's San Luis port for deportation.
The transfers, however, are controversial.
Immigrant advocates say the practice puts illegal immigrants in danger.
"People are then sent to ports of entry or locations where they do not have any resources to try to get back home, or to dangerous ports of entry ... where there are high crimes rates or high drug-trafficking crimes rates," said Victoria Lopez, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union office in Phoenix.
Some humanitarian groups have also raised concerns that the transfers separate families.
A September report by No More Deaths, a Tucson humanitarian group, based on interviews with more than 12,800 illegal immigrants deported by the Border Patrol, found 869 family members who had been removed separately, including 17 children and 41 teens. The separations often occurred after the Border Patrol transferred illegal immigrants to other states so they could be deported through ports far from where they were apprehended, the report said.
Agle, however, said the Border Patrol does not separate families. The Border Patrol selects only men between the ages of 20 and 60 traveling without family members for the transfer program, in part for safety reasons, she said.
Alan Bersin, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, the agency that oversees the Border Patrol, toured the border on horseback with Napolitano. He said he has heard complaints that the transfers break up families, but he has not seen hard evidence of that happening.
He said both CBP and the Department of Homeland Security's civil-rights division are investigating the allegations.
Illegal immigrants arrested in southern Arizona are bused from Tucson to the Del Rio or Eagle Pass ports of entry in Texas or to the Calexico or San Ysidro ports of entry in California, Agle said.
The transfers are part of stepped-up efforts to deter illegal immigration by imposing consequences even to illegal immigrants caught by the Border Patrol for the first time. In the past, repeat illegal border crossers were often just sent back after being processed and fingerprinted. Many often reconnected with smugglers in Mexico and attempted to cross again.
During the deadly summer months, some illegal immigrants caught by the Border Patrol in southern Arizona are turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and flown to the interior of Mexico. And since January, the Border Patrol has been prosecuting illegal border crossers on federal criminal charges, rather than simply returning them to Mexico.
The increase in transfers from Arizona to other border states contributed to an overall drop in deportations last year in Arizona.
Federal immigration officials in Arizona deported 56,198 people last year, a nearly 40 percent drop from the previous year, and the first decrease since 2005. But while deportations in Arizona are down, they are up nationally. ICE deported a record number of illegal immigrants last year, 396,906 nationwide compared with 392,862, ICE officials said.
Without the transfers, the number of deportations in Arizona would not have been down dramatically.
What's more, deportations in California and Texas increased significantly last year because of the transfers, said Vincent Picard, a spokesman for ICE.
Last year, ICE deportations increased by 15,000 in the El Paso area and by 8,000 in the San Antonio area, Picard said.
ICE deportations in the San Diego area increased by 15,000 last year, he said.
Picard said several other factors contributed to last year's drop in deportations in Arizona.
The Arizona number includes illegal immigrants arrested in Arizona as well as those arrested in other Western states and transferred to detention centers in Arizona for removal.
- With illegal immigration down, the Border Patrol is arresting fewer illegal immigrants, which means fewer illegal immigrants are being turned over to ICE for removal, Picard said.
The Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, the nation's busiest, arrested 116,463 illegal immigrants from Oct. 1, 2010, through Aug. 30, 2011, Agle said. That is down nearly 43 percent from the 203,563 arrested during the same period the previous year.
- Calls from local police encountering illegal immigrants inside either smuggling vehicles or drophouses are also down, Picard said. ICE identified 2,741 illegal immigrants through such calls last year, down nearly 33 percent from the 4,081 the year before.
- Removals through ICE's 287(g) program, which allows local police trained by ICE to enforce immigration laws, also dropped from 11,667 in fiscal year 2010 to 7,609 last year, Picard said. That was a nearly 35 percent decrease.
Luis Avila, president of Somos America, a coalition of immigrant-advocacy groups, said the decrease in deportations in Arizona does not mean fewer people are being deported. They are only being deported through other states, he said.
Napolitano and Bersin arrived in Nogales on Sunday from Washington, D.C., on a military jet. They met briefly with about 50 Border Patrol agents before touring the border on horseback for about an hour.
Napolitano and a dozen agents rode several miles along Potrero Canyon, with commanding views of the rugged terrain west of Nogales. The area is vast and desolate, and Napolitano, an experienced rider, weaved her chestnut-colored quarter horse Hunter, borrowed from the Border Patrol, through stands of thorny mesquite trees and ocotillo bushes.
"Nothing beats coming out and seeing for yourself and talking with the agents, and in this case getting on a horse and getting out and seeing some of the terrain," she said.
A decade ago the area was overrun by illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. But now, agents catch illegal immigrants in this area only occasionally.
"The difference between Nogales now versus Nogales in the nineties or even the early part of this century," she said, "it really is quite clear the amount of manpower the technology, the assets that are deployed down here - it's just a different world than it was."
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