Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Banditry up at illegal immigrants' favorite crossing spots

ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
The Associated Press


Armed robberies of illegal immigrants are on the rise along the Arizona-Mexico border, with notable spikes in remote areas increasingly favored by illegal immigrants, authorities say.

The increases reflect competition between smugglers pressured by U.S. Border Patrol crackdowns and bandits eager to take advantage of easy targets, officials say.

"A lot of it has to do with what we're seeing on the border in terms of enforcement efforts," said Gus Soto, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, which covers most of Arizona's roughly 380-mile border with Mexico.

"It's becoming more difficult to cross, and the smugglers are going after each other, battling each other for control," he said.

The heaviest increases apparently are around Sasabe, the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge and Yuma County.

The robbery numbers have gone up with the traffic.

"We have seen a significant increase in armed robberies of illegal aliens over the last year or so," said Capt. Eben Bratcher of the Yuma County Sheriff's Department, which has dealt with many of the victims.

The Border Patrol is also reporting increased numbers.

In fiscal 2004, 12 illegal immigrants reported being robbed in three incidents in the patrol's Yuma sector.

In 2005, there were 17 incidents involving about 98 victims, Border Patrol spokesman Rick Hays said.

During the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, there have been 39 incidents involving about 330 victims, Hays said.

Early this month, Border Patrol agents who came under fire shot and killed a robbery suspect while patrolling a thickly vegetated area along the Colorado River where many of the Yuma-area robberies have been committed.

The Sheriff's Department's Bratcher said there are indications that some smugglers may be working with bandits.

More than once victimized migrant groups reported that their smuggler brought them to a particular area along the river and told them to wait, only to have the bandits emerge from the undergrowth and rob them.

Soto said that bandits working with a smuggling ring sometimes will jump a group of migrants being escorted by a competing organization's guide and take the migrants at gunpoint to demand additional money from their families.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada suggested that migrants trying to cross the border by themselves, without a coyote's assistance, are particularly vulnerable to theft, assault, robbery, rape or even murder.

Many of the crimes against migrants are believed to be committed on the Mexican side of the border, but some bandits jump groups of migrants once they've crossed into Arizona, officials say.

According to the Mexican Consulate in Yuma, the victims usually report that they were held up before they crossed into the United States.

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