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Chertoff speaks in Mercedes
August 25,2006
Matt Whittaker
Monitor Staff Writer


NEAR MERCEDES — The Bush administration says increased National Guard presence and the near end of a controversial "catch-and-release" policy have helped decrease illegal immigration.

Speaking at a river pumping station along the Rio Grande south of this Mid-Valley city, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Thursday said that enforcement officials are detaining nearly all illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico, rather than releasing many because of lack of bed space.

That, coupled with an increased National Guard presence, has decreased criminal activity along the border, Chertoff said, citing apprehension rates, activity south of the border and anecdotal evidence.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is now detaining 99 percent of the non-Mexican illegal immigrants it catches before returning them to their home countries, up from 34 percent last year, according to Homeland Security data. The time they are detained has also decreased, freeing up more beds.

Immigrants who come from South American and Central American countries are harder for immigration officials to deal with because they cannot be sent back to their home countries through Mexico. In the past — in what has been derided as a "catch and release" program — many have been released in the United States with only a promise to show up for a future court date.

Illegal immigrants from Mexico who don’t have troublesome immigration or criminal records can be more easily returned south of the border.

President Bush has asked Congress for $327 million to help end the catch-and-release policy, and $257 million has been approved. That will allow for 4,000 additional beds this year. At a Raymondville facility, 500 beds have recently been added.

Homeland Security estimates that there were 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States in January 2005, up from 8.5 million in January 2000. More than half were from Mexico. Other estimates put the current figure of total illegal immigrants in the nation at 12 million.

In May, the president called for sending up to 6,000 National Guard troops to support immigration enforcement agents.

"They have freed up Border Patrol," Chertoff said.

Texas’ senators praised the Homeland Security efforts, but a local immigrants rights group said the enforcement efforts won’t really change anything.

"It’s more of the same that we’ve seen … over the last 10 to 12 years," said Nathan Selzer, spokesman for Harlingen-based Valley Movement for Human Rights. "As long as they keep looking at this enforcement-only approach it’s going to be more of the same. It’s a misuse at best and an immoral use at worst of taxpayer dollars."

He said enforcement policies in populated areas historically have diverted clandestine immigrant traffic to more remote and dangerous regions, forcing immigrants to use human smugglers who pack them into sweltering, and sometimes deadly, trucks.

Selzer said Chertoff was speculating on the reasons for declining numbers of immigrants, saying the drop could be attributed to slowdowns in the construction and agriculture industries where many immigrants work.

Standing at Chertoff’s side Thursday, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, applauded his department’s work.

"The secretary must be commended for stopping the catch-and-release program," Hutchison said.

Also in attendance was Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., who has worked with Hutchison on an immigration-related legislation proposal.

"We have nefarious people coming here into our country," Pence said.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who did not attend the conference, said the catch-and-release practice contributes to the illegal immigration "crisis" in the United States.

"This renewed commitment by the Bush administration is a strong step in the right direction," Cornyn said in a prepared statement.

Careful to not declare his department’s efforts finished, Chertoff said more work needs to be done with border control, including enforcement measures both along the border and in the interior of the country as well as a temporary worker program.

After touching down in Harlingen, Chertoff watched a flight returning illegal immigrants take off from Valley International Airport. Its destination was unclear.

He then attended a briefing at the Harlingen Border Patrol station — where he was told about the patrol’s operations with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and took a brief tour of the border on his way to the news conference.

He was scheduled to tour the new Willacy County detention facility before departing the Valley and later addressing U.S. and Mexican border governors in Austin.

This is the second time the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol sector has hosted Chertoff. The secretary was in Brownsville in March, along with the Mexican Secretary of Governance, to sign a cooperative agreement between the two countries on dealing with border violence.

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Matt Whittaker covers business, economics, finance and social issues for Valley Freedom Newspapers. He is based in McAllen and can be reached at (956) 683-4422.