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San Diego Ports First In Nation To Implement Fines

POSTED: 8:46 am PST January 20, 2006
UPDATED: 9:01 am PST January 20, 2006

SAN DIEGO -- American citizens who generally go unpunished for smuggling people across the U.S.-Mexico border will now face thousands of dollars in fines when they are caught in San Diego, it was reported Friday.

Customs officials at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry are the first in the nation to implement a program of civil fines for citizens and legal residents caught smuggling people into the country, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

A first offense is punishable by a fine of $5,000, and second-time offenders will be fined twice as much, the Union-Tribune reported.

Officials said most smugglers commit the offense to make money, and the goal of the new fines is to take money away from them and stop the behavior, according to the newspaper.

Another part of the goal is to punish smugglers who would generally go unpunished.

Federal prosecutors in San Diego are overburdened with human- and drug-smuggling cases, making it difficult for border security officials to prosecute most human-smuggling offenders, according to the newspaper.

Typically, only the worst cases, such as those involving the endangerment of the people being smuggled, are prosecuted, the newspaper reported.

Non-citizens who aren't prosecuted are subject to punishment: Foreign nationals caught smuggling can be repatriated, and legal residents can be stripped of their green cards, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The San Diego and Otay Mesa ports are the busiest for human smuggling, and they have been growing busier.

In fiscal year 2005, 92 percent of all smuggling cases at ports of entry took place at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports, compared with 82 percent in 2003, according to the newspaper.