U.S. attorneys couldn't believe what they saw

October 30, 2008

Border crime is a consuming issue for Karen Hewitt, the U.S. attorney in San Diego. So she recently took a visiting group of about 30 U.S. attorneys from across the country on a San Ysidro border tour.

Within five minutes, they saw weapons confiscated from a man considered armed and dangerous, a stash of marijuana detected in a smuggler's car and six illegal immigrants apprehended in another vehicle.

The whirlwind scenario left the visiting attorneys in disbelief. One asked Hewitt: “Did you stage this?â€