Posted on 09/22/2005 7:57:48 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - A top federal official claimed Thursday that the Border Patrol during a recent crackdown has reduced illegal immigration along the well-traveled route from Mexico into Arizona.
"We are making progress ... in decreasing numbers and the flow of aliens across Arizona," said Robert Bonner, commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
In a telephone interview from Washington, he noted that total apprehensions of illegal immigrants crossing into Arizona dropped about 13 percent over the past six months compared to the same period a year earlier.
"Same song, different day," countered the Rev. Robin Hoover, founder of Humane Borders, a Tucson-based organization that places water along desert trails frequented by illegal immigrants.
"What is needed is for Commissioner Bonner to come out for comprehensive immigration reform so that we can get people out of the desert in the first place," Hoover said.
Hoover contended that none of the federal efforts since 1993 have resulted in overall reductions in the number of people migrating.
Bonner acknowledged that the number of immigrants dying in Arizona's deserts - 176 just during the six months since the current initiative started, and 238 for the fiscal year, which ends in a week - has smashed previous records. "The loss of even a single life is tragic," Bonner said.
But he added, "It has been one of the hottest seasons in the Sonoran Desert and Arizona in a number of years."
In recent years, Arizona has been the most active point along the Mexican border for illegal immigrants. The state accounted for 54 percent of the 1.1 million illegal immigrant apprehensions nationwide during the 2004 fiscal year.
The initial focus of the latest operation was in the so-called west desert, about 110 miles of the Border Patrol's Tucson sector. That sector encompasses all but about the 80 westernmost miles of Arizona's border with Mexico. The rest is covered by agents in the Yuma sector.
Bonner said officials knew some traffic would shift elsewhere along the border. In fact, increased arrests this year have transformed the Yuma station into the nation's busiest for migrant apprehensions. Bonner said there's also been increased traffic in the area around Deming, N.M.
Hoover said the shift amounted to the "cat chasing the mouse."
It's hard to apprehend people you aren't looking for....
ILLEGALLY ENTERING A FORGIEN COUNTRY IS NOT "MIGRATING" ITS INVADING!
Would the last one out of Mexico please turn out the lights.
ROFLMAO ... And don't forget the salsa!
Makes sense, catch and release, won't have the same ones to deal with on a daily retry basis.
Geese migrate.
So if illegal aliens migrate, does that mean they're going to fly south for the winter???!!! LOL
ping
They'll "fly" south all right for those hurricane reconstruction jobs.
Whether Mexico gets better or not - Nearly half of Mexican adults would move to the U.S. if they could – and one in five say they would do so illegally, new surveys reveal.
Note to Rev. Robin Hoover:
"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Mat 7:13
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
I don't trust one word out of this administration on anything regarding illegal immigration. Recall that during the first Minuteman border watch, Border Patrol agents were saying that they were ordered not to talk to the press about the reduced traffic across the border. Instead, a bunch of new agents were supposedly sent to the border (nobody outside the Border Patrol claims to have seen them), and the lower traffic was attributed to that. Clearly the Bush administration isn't above manipulating the numbers to suit their purposes.
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