New fences, increased staff, crossings deterred progress bump... 5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
Posted on 08/01/2004 10:53:42 PM PDT by ETERNAL WARMING
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'Huge financial burden'
Starting in October 1994, Gatekeeper brought new rows of fencing, sophisticated surveillance technology and hundreds of additional Border Patrol agents here.
This and similar enforcement strategies at ports of entry in Texas and Arizona are largely responsible for the Border Patrol's annual budget being increased from about $361 million in 1993 to $1.2 billion this year.
Much of the increase has gone toward salaries. Border Patrol agents, a relatively meager force of 3,960 in 1993, now number more than 11,000 nationwide. Until recently, more than one-fifth were stationed in San Diego.
Locally, Gatekeeper quickly deterred border crossers. Apprehensions of undocumented immigrants in the Border Patrol's San Diego sector have dropped sharply, from 531,689 in fiscal year 1993 to 111,515 last year.
As it became more difficult to cross illegally through San Diego, migrant traffic moved into the mountains and deserts of Imperial County and then to the searing-hot terrain of southern Arizona.
"What they really have done is that they have passed on, truly, the problems and the impacts that were associated more closely with San Diego," said Victor Rocha, deputy public administrator for Imperial County.
While the number of apprehensions in the San Diego sector declined, they multiplied in the Border Patrol's El Centro sector, from 30,058 in 1993 to a peak of 238,127 in 2000. Increased border enforcement there has recently pushed that number down – 79,562 people were caught crossing last year – but the rate is still more than double what it was.
With the new traffic came more deaths, injuries and overall costs.
Close to 3,000 people have died crossing the border since January 1995, the majority in the desert regions of southeastern California and Arizona.
Almost 600 have died since 1995 in Imperial County, not including those involved in smuggling-related traffic accidents. They drowned in the All-American Canal, were hit by trains or died of dehydration and exposure in the 100-plus degree heat during the summer months. Eight died there during a two-week period last month.
Imperial County has spent about $1.7 million to examine, identify and store their bodies and bury those who were not identified, according to county officials.
Then there are those found near death in the wilderness by Border Patrol agents, or picked up tottering alongside the road, injured or severely dehydrated, by passers-by or local law enforcement.
These migrants are taken to the county's two hospitals, most to El Centro Regional Medical Center. Their problems vary from dehydration and exhaustion – the most common problems – to broken bones from jumping the border fence at Calexico, which was raised by as much as 4 feet in some stretches in the late 1990s.
Dr. George Rodriguez, a longtime veteran of the hospital's emergency room, remembers when migrants with shattered ankles – a $25,000 injury – and broken legs, wrists, backs and other jumping-related injuries began flooding his department.
"We didn't have a lot of traffic initially because everyone was going to San Diego," he said. "When (Gatekeeper) started in San Diego, everything shifted east and we saw an increase in activity. It's a huge financial burden."
The facility, which like all hospitals must provide emergency care to all patients by law, absorbs these costs, said its chief financial officer, Kathleen Farmer. Unless an injured migrant remains in Border Patrol custody, which she said happens rarely, the federal government does not pick up the tab.
"They had contact with federal agencies, but we didn't get paid by the agency," she said. "They tell us they are just giving them a ride. It's just lost."
For the past several years, the hospital has spent about $1.5 million a year on charity care for patients believed to be foreign nationals, Farmer said. Last year, the hospital spent about $600,000 just on those who had contact with federal agents.
Though hardly a day goes by without a new crossing case, the recent drop in arrests has led to less activity in the hospital's emergency room, "maybe because everybody is moving farther east," Rodriguez said.
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(Excerpt) Read more at signonsandiego.com ...
This is runaway tyranny-forcing citizens to pay for a selected few's prosperity.
New fences, increased staff, crossings deterred progress bump... 5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
It's Border Patrol policy not to take injured illegal aliens into custody. The Border Patrol does not give rides to the ER.EMS does.
It's all the same ball of wax, as I have been arguing for a while now. /openbordersfreetrade
Why is it that "conservatives" who fill their shorts when someone suggests protective tariffs to protect American jobs don't seem to mind taxpayers subsidizing cheap labor?
They're the ones getting cash in their pockets. We're the ones being robbed so they benefit.
"That cheap labor is costing us too much."
Bump.
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