Thread: "Fewer caught sneaking into USA", USA TODAY

Fewer caught sneaking into USA

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY

EL PASO — The number of people caught trying to sneak into the USA from Mexico is at its lowest level since the mid-1970s, signs of tougher enforcement and a weaker U.S. economy, officials say.

The Border Patrol caught 705,000 people along the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2008, which ended Sept. 30, according to new agency figures. That's nearly 2,000 a day and the lowest number since 1976, when 675,000 people were caught entering illegally between San Diego and central Texas, the figures show.

The Border Patrol has long used the number of apprehensions as an indicator of how many people try to cross U.S. borders illegally. The latest figures show that recent steps — including building a fence, adding more Border Patrol agents and prosecuting more people caught sneaking across the border — are deterring illegal crossings, officials say. The weak U.S. economy also is discouraging migrants, officials and analysts say.

"We're definitely making it tougher on them," Border Patrol assistant chief Lloyd Easterling says. "I'm not telling you that we've won the war, but we are making headway."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a Dec. 19 speech that there's been "a collapse in the number of people who come across the border illegally."

FIND MORE STORIES IN: San Diego | Border Patrol | Congressional Research Service | Pew Hispanic Center | Lloyd Easterling | Heyman
Chertoff cited a weaker U.S. economy and "tough enforcement," including the addition of 6,000 Border Patrol agents since mid-2006 and the construction of 526 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border since 2007. About 97% of illegal border crossers enter through Mexico, and about 90% are Mexican, Border Patrol figures show.

Josiah Heyman, a border expert at the University of Texas El Paso, said it's impossible to know why apprehensions are declining. "We know from the past that economic conditions of the U.S. affect migration. Word gets back to Mexico really fast what the job opportunities are or are not," Heyman said.

He added, "It's possible we've crossed some threshold where it's risky and expensive to try to get to the U.S. (illegally) so it's beginning to discourage people." Illegal migrants often pay a smuggler about $2,000, Heyman said.

Border apprehensions have fluctuated widely for decades. They peaked at 1.7 million in the mid-1980s, fell to about 1 million in the late 1980s, and hit 1.6 million again in 2000. Border Patrol staffing has climbed steadily to 18,000 agents from 4,000 in 1993, agency figures show.

The Congressional Research Service said in May that the number of apprehensions is "the most reliable" measure of illegal crossings but they do not give a complete picture because "there are no reliable estimates for how many aliens successfully evade capture."

About 11.9 million illegal immigrants live in the USA, according to an estimate in October by the Pew Hispanic Center.
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Great picture of the old and the new border fence at this link
and you can post a comment at the USA TODAY Online site at this link too:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... ings_N.htm

About 97% of illegal border crossers enter through Mexico, and about 90% are Mexican, Border Patrol figures show.

USA TODAY posted this article on Sunday afternoon and will take it down early Monday morning to assure that the least number of people possible will see it. So we need to email this article to every media outlet in the country and everyone you know to assure that the most people possible learn about it.

USA TODAY doesn't want to offend the people who enter our country ILLEGALLY
or the politicians who want to reward their criminal actions by giving them citizenship.

This is the only upside to the poor economy. I think that there will also be no amnesty due to the economy and many others think the same.

This is all propaganda as USA Today is another pro open borders kitty litter box liner lying to the American people to make them believe the joke of a border is secure so Obama and Congress can ram illegal immigration amnesty down our throats and up our asses. Border patrol tells us the border still is out of control with the drug cartel violence continuing to spill into the US. Border patrol personnel are finding prayer rugs, parts of bombs, IED's and other weapons left by those from special interest countries making one wonder how many terrorists are able to easily enter this country among the 5,000 to 10,000 illegally crossing the border every week to establish sleeper cells or be a part of one. The Cross Border Trucking Initiative is an abject failure as Border Patrol personnel tell us trucks are not inspected but given a 15 second electronic waive through resulting in BP and other law enforcement agents constantly stopping semi's loaded with illegal aliens, drugs, weapons and other contraband miles north of the border. The virtual fence also is a failure as sensors, cameras and other vital parts are constantly out of service, sometimes for months at a time again resulting in the constant apprehension of hundreds of illegal aliens miles north of sections of the virtual fence. DHS is creating express lanes at land border crossing checkpoints even in locations of high drug cartel activity as Laredo where vehicles including semis would simply be waived through without any identification checks or cargo inspections. Yet the clowns in congress continue to ignore this placing open borders, cheap labor and illegal alien votes ahead of the welfare and security of the American people.
The American people need to know there is no border security. Any articles published by terrorist and illegal alien supporting Al Jazeera media partners as the NYT and USA today stating the borders are secure is sheer claptrap by a government and media who as always care only about open borders, cheap labor, votes and NOT the security and welfare of the American people.

Originally Posted by Dixie

About 97% of illegal border crossers enter through Mexico, and about 90% are Mexican, Border Patrol figures show.

And people ask why sometime we refer to them as Mexican?

When anyone quotes glowing success statitics issued by this government, I have to ask what is real and what is skewed to advance their political agenda. Throw statistics out by being too volatile, like those surrounding the GDP (oil and food); throw out those that have quit looking for work and have run out of unemployment benefits when you produce employment numbers, etc., so unemployment gets no where near 12.5 percent experts say it really is.

Originally Posted by retiredairforce

This is all propaganda as USA Today is another pro open borders kitty litter box liner lying to the American people to make them believe the joke of a border is secure so Obama and Congress can ram illegal immigration amnesty down our throats and up our asses. Border patrol tells us the border still is out of control with the drug cartel violence continuing to spill into the US. Border patrol personnel are finding prayer rugs, parts of bombs, IED's and other weapons left by those from special interest countries making one wonder how many terrorists are able to easily enter this country among the 5,000 to 10,000 illegally crossing the border every week to establish sleeper cells or be a part of one. The Cross Border Trucking Initiative is an abject failure as Border Patrol personnel tell us trucks are not inspected but given a 15 second electronic waive through resulting in BP and other law enforcement agents constantly stopping semi's loaded with illegal aliens, drugs, weapons and other contraband miles north of the border. The virtual fence also is a failure as sensors, cameras and other vital parts are constantly out of service, sometimes for months at a time again resulting in the constant apprehension of hundreds of illegal aliens miles north of sections of the virtual fence. DHS is creating express lanes at land border crossing checkpoints even in locations of high drug cartel activity as Laredo where vehicles including semis would simply be waived through without any identification checks or cargo inspections. Yet the clowns in congress continue to ignore this placing open borders, cheap labor and illegal alien votes ahead of the welfare and security of the American people.
The American people need to know there is no border security. Any articles published by terrorist and illegal alien supporting Al Jazeera media partners as the NYT and USA today stating the borders are secure is sheer claptrap by a government and media who as always care only about open borders, cheap labor, votes and NOT the security and welfare of the American people.

I'm not buying it either. USA Today is part of Corporate America and it's agenda is obvious to the most casual observer.....Lie and lie and lie and lie to make a buck while destroying the United States of America.

I agree with the comment made about our borders not being secure. It is not only the Mexican border but the ocean as well. If you live in South Florida you are well aware how easy it is for Cubans to make land. It seems like every other week some make land. Even when they had the big exercise with the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, Homeland Security and Police Department's Marine Patrol Units some Cubans actually made land. I posted the articles at that time.

Apprehensions are probably down because they have increased the number of work visas to two million and allowed the Mexican trucks to roll. Border Patrol is seeing less because they are on the trucks now.

W