http://elpasotimes.com/news/ci_4401734

Article Launched: 9/27/2006 12:00 AM

Loitering on international bridge can get you arrested

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
El Paso Times

U.S. officials have figured out a way to deal with "spotters," people who loiter on the international bridges, watching inspectors work and telling cars loaded with drugs when to cross.
The officials will just arrest them.

The chunk of U.S. soil that lies between the center of an international bridge and the inspection booths has long been considered a gray area for undocumented immigrants. Foreigners hanging out on this no-man's land would be asked to simply walk back to the Mexican side of the bridge.

But because of an El Paso case that set a legal precedent, it may no longer be the case.

On July 20, Miguel Angel Cabrera Cruz, a Mexican man with no U.S. immigration papers, was hanging out on the U.S. side of the Paso del Norte Bridge, about 40 yards from the pedestrian inspection area.

Even though he had not made formal entry into the United States, Cabrera, 26, was arrested by Customs and Border Protection officers and processed through the immigration legal system.

On Aug. 21, immigration judge William Abbott ordered Cabrera deported. A formal deportation is recorded in the migrant's file and can mean in some cases that the migrant will be sentenced to prison the next time he is caught in the U.S. illegally.

Luis Garcia, the CBP director of field operation in El Paso, said the decision will allow the detention of people who "have no legal reason to be at a port of entry," such as the spotters working for drug cartels or possibly for other criminal or terrorist organizations.

"This is a fine example of CBP officers being proactive, being innovative and gaining results never achieved before anywhere," Garcia said.

Cabrera was not a spotter. Officials said he was waiting for his girlfriend, who had immigration papers, to clear the inspection and that he intended to climb over the fence to meet her in El Paso.

He had been deported once before, in 2002 after serving a prison sentence for importation of marijuana, officials said.

Another legal precedent reached in August and stemming from an El Paso case also said the laws of the United States apply on the international bridges: The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that non-U.S. citizens have constitutional rights at ports of entry.

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com, 546-6131.