Border Patrol: Can we give you a ride to the bus station?

QandoBlog ^

[Happy2BMe]

Border Patrol: Can we give you a ride to the bus station?
Posted by: McQ on Sunday, June 05, 2005
 

You're an illegal immigrant from a country other than Mexico. You're at the Rio Grande and you set out across the river into the US. Once you get across, what's the first thing you do?

You look for a US Border Patrol agent and surrender yourself.

In the silvery-blue light of dusk, 20 Brazilians glided across the Rio Grande in rubber rafts propelled by Mexican smugglers who leaned forward and breast-stroked through the gentle current.

Once on the U.S. side, the Brazilians scrambled ashore and started looking for the Border Patrol. Their quick and well-rehearsed surrender was part of a growing trend that is demoralizing the Border Patrol and beckoning a rising number of illegal immigrants from countries beyond Mexico.

"We used to chase them; now they're chasing us," Border Patrol Agent Gus Balderas said as he frisked the Brazilians and collected their passports late last month.

Ok, ok, you're first reaction is, "what is this April 1st?"

Well, no, it's not. It's the way immigration law works:

The group was detained overnight and given a court summons that allowed them to stay in the United States pending an immigration hearing. Then a Border Patrol agent drove them to the McAllen bus station, where they continued their journey into America.

The formal term for the court summons is a "notice to appear." Border Patrol agents have another name for it. They call it a "notice to disappear."

With Mexicans, the Border Patrol can immediately send them back to Mexico. But with others, they have to be "processed".

Now, common sense says you hold them until they are processed within the system, correct?

Wrong. As noted above, they're given a summons to appear, and then, with the blessings of the Border Patrol (and that ride to the bus station), they disappear into the interior of the US.

How bad is it?

Of the 8,908 notices to appear that the immigration court in nearby Harlingen issued last year to non-Mexicans, 8,767 failed to show up for their hearings, according to statistics compiled by the Justice Department's Executive Office of Immigration Review. That is a no-show rate of 98 percent.

98%? Truly a successful program wouldn't you say?

As word of this border loophole filters back to Central and South America, the volume of people coming to exploit it is likely to grow, according to Border Patrol agents.

Apprehension statistics bolster their assertion. Arrests of non-Mexicans along the U.S.-Mexico border totaled 14,935 in 1995, 28,598 in 2000 and 65,814 last year. In the first eight months of this federal fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, more than 85,000 have been apprehended. Nearly all are no-shows at their court hearings, but comprehensive federal figures are not available.

Welcome to the law of unintended consequences. And, of course try to assure me all of those 65,814 were "Central and South Americans". Hey, if you can buy the crock that our borders are secure, I can buy the crock that says nothing but Central and South Americans are using the loophole.

Then again, it wouldn't suprise me if the boys and girls of the Border Patrol have been dropping off a few guys calling themselves Brazilians at the bus stop who might really answer to "Abu" and "Mohammed" if anyone were to listen closely. Or maybe not. Maybe they, the potential terrorists, just need to use a group of Brazilians as their stalking horse:

Many Border Patrol agents express frustration over the dilemma. They also worry that the high volume of non-Mexicans is taking up much of their time and might be making it easier for potential terrorists to slip past. Some said they spend much of their 10-hour shift processing non-Mexicans.

No telling who came across after those 20 Brazilians tied up the Border Patrol agents processing them, is there?

[Happy2BMe]

A new one down there is to hold up Americans at ATM machines, demand the card holder empty their ATM account, take the money and run.

Absolutely no evidence of a crime.

[potlatch]

Strangely I've never seen an ATM machine IN Progresso. It's a big tourist town and they take checks and credit cards. We have only used a credit card at the best stores for big items and had no problem.

Jack has had our cell phone CLONED twice over there!! He turns it off now, LOL.