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Letter to Bush requests more smuggler prosecutions

By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, and 18 other members of Congress sent a letter to President Bush on Monday asking him to increase spending on the prosecution of illegal immigrant smugglers, known as coyotes.

"There is a crisis along the Southwest border that needs your immediate attention," the letter states. "We ask that you dedicate additional resources and direct U.S. Attorneys in the Southwest region to make the prosecution of human smugglers a priority."

Issa's office sent a news release on the need for increased funding for smuggler prosecution and copy of the letter to Bush to the North County Times on Tuesday.


An academic specializing in border issues and a spokesman for the union representing U.S. Border Patrol agents, however, said that increasing prosecutions of smugglers doesn't address the main cause of illegal immigration: a ready-and-willing labor market for cheap labor in the United States.

In their letter, the Congress members said the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego has said that a lack of funding was preventing it from prosecuting as many cases as it should.

That office "stated that it is forced to limit prosecution to only the worst 'coyote' offenders, leaving countless bad actors to go free," the letter states. "It is unfathomable that these smugglers who risk the lives of others for profit should be allowed to go free."

White House officials could not be reached for comment late Monday. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington said that he could not comment on the letter.

In an August interview, the assistant U.S. attorney overseeing the border crimes division in the San Diego office acknowledged that prosecutors continue to face a lack of resources in prosecuting immigrant smugglers.

In addition to Issa, two other San Diego County congressmen signed the letter, U.S. Reps. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Escondido and Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon. All three congressmen are conservatives who have long called for increased enforcement of immigration laws and strengthening of the United States' border with Mexico.

In a Tuesday phone interview, Issa said he understands that the Justice Department has limited resources.

Issa said if the federal government so chooses, it can dedicate more of its limited funds to prosecuting smugglers, "(and) we can make the streets of my district and other parts of America safe."

Asked to comment on the congressmen's appeal to Bush, a scholar on border issues said Tuesday that prosecuting more smugglers addresses the symptoms but not the causes of illegal immigration.

Unofficial estimates peg the number of immigrants living in the United States illegally at between 11 million and 20 million people.

"The larger picture is that the ultimate solution to these problems is not going to be found in law enforcement," said David Wirt, director of University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute, a program started in 1994 to promote border-related scholarship, activities and community at the university.

He said that by its strengthening of security at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years, the federal government has unleashed an increase in the number of immigrant smugglers jumping into the business.

Border officials say that the cost of hiring an immigrant smuggler, or coyote, has increased from as little as $100 in the early 1990s to as much as $2,000 today.

"When you create a black market, you create opportunities and incentives for organized crime," he said.

Contacted Tuesday to comment on the story, another border official said that while it is important to increase prosecutions, the real solution to stopping illegal immigration lies elsewhere.

"It's holding employers who hire (immigrants without documents) accountable and making it painful for them to disobey the law," said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing many rank-and-file U.S. Border Patrol agents.

For every smuggler that the government puts in jail, another is waiting in the wings to take his place, "because this is a very lucrative business," he said.

Issa said that in his 49th Congressional District, which covers much of North County and portions of Southwest Riverside County, the No. 1 complaint he hears from his constituents is that the federal government is not doing enough to enforce immigration laws.

Issa said that he and other legislators have been meeting with administration officials in recent weeks to come up with a guest-worker program that would allow foreign workers to apply for temporary immigration status in the United States. News reports have said that one of the program's possible features would require those who are already in this country illegally to first pay a fine before they could apply for guest-worker status.

Issa said Bush would increase his chances of obtaining support for that proposal if he would first show a willingness to take more immediate steps, Issa said.

"If the administration wants to get its own Republican base on board, I feel we have to show our willingness to enforce the laws that are already on the books," he said.