Thread: Officals: OTM's A Very Grave Problem

http://www.delrionewsherald.com/report.lasso?wcd=9140

Officals: OTM's a very grave problem’

By Bill Sontag
Del Rio News-Herald

Published May 22, 2005

The “Other Than Mexican� problem is far from solved, but both the indignation and the sheer numbers of illegal immigrants are rising fast.

Mexicans who illegally cross the Rio Grande are easily deported. After processing with photos and fingerprints, Border Patrol vans simply carry them to the nearest international bridge. When the doors open, the former immigrants are deposited back in their home country.

But returning citizens of Central and South America to their homeland is cost-prohibitive, according to Border Patrol officials in Del Rio. So, in the absence of adequate detention facilities to hold them, OTMs are simply released into the U.S. population after processing, interrogations and a little paperwork.

With a written order to appear within 30 days in a U.S. court for adjudication on their illegal entry, more than 80 percent of the OTMs never show up, having disappeared into the social milieu of big cities.

The flood of illegal immigration originating south of the U.S.-Mexico border has always tested the mettle, patience and skills of the U.S. Border Patrol, but the latest twist leaves field agents wringing their hands in frustration.

“Down in Eagle Pass, we’ll see them sitting by the side of a road, and they’ll chase us down and nearly beg to be arrested,� said one field agent who asked to not be identified.

“They know they’ll be released pretty fast, and that paper (court “notice to appear� document) is like their ticket to go wherever they want.�

Paul Berg, chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s sprawling Del Rio Sector, is just as frustrated by the situation as his field agents. “Generally it’s just not acceptable for us to be arresting these OTMs, and releasing 92 percent of them,� Berg said Wednesday afternoon.

Berg’s sector headquarters in Del Rio oversees and supports the work of agents in stations in Abilene, Bracketville, Carrizo Springs, Comstock, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Llano, Rocksprings, San Angelo and Uvalde.

Border Patrol statistics show that, since October 1, 2004, the beginning of the agency’s fiscal year, Del Rio Sector agents apprehended 42,239 illegal immigrants, and 14,569 (34.49 percent) were OTMs.

In that same period, about 13,000 OTMs were released, “free to move about the country,� from the Del Rio Sector.

In part because of their eagerness to be apprehended and processed, Berg estimates, “Eighty- to 90 percent of all the OTM’s (in the Del Rio Sector) are arrested in Eagle Pass on the golf course there, processed, and given a notice to appear.�

Next, Berg explained, the illegal immigrants are released right out the front door of the Eagle Pass station. “Then they go all over the U.S.,� Berg said, adding that the East Coast is a popular destination.

Though the vast majority take commercial buses, “Some of them have used our airline, some even take taxi cabs,� Berg said.

“We really don’t have time to track their movements, but our intelligence agents do interview them,� Berg said. Such interviews result in the retention of the eight percent who are not routinely released.

“We had some Ethiopians here a few days ago,� Berg offered as an example, adding that these immigrants are still in custody. Ethiopia is, in Department of Homeland Security parlance, a “country of interest.� Thirty countries are tagged with the unenviable label.

The unidentified field agent pointed out, however, that, while Canada is not a “country of interest,� the northern neighbor is far more lax in immigration enforcement. Immigrants from countries that the U.S. has identified as “of interest,� can receive Canadian residency papers, and travel freely in the United States.

Berg explained that OTM release actions have been widely broadcast throughout Central America and beyond, causing the Texas section of the U.S. border, from Del Rio to Brownsville, to be the geopolitical objective in the sights of millions of would-be border crossers.

The rest of the border, from El Paso to California, is far less popular among crossers in part because detention facilities are more abundant. Available space in jails and detention centers is a comparatively scarce commodity in communities along the Rio Grande, including Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Laredo, McAllen and Brownsville.

And that broadly understood dilemma accounts, Berg said, for a 241 percent increase in OTM apprehensions between Fiscal Year 2004 and FY 2005.

“We’re taking in anywhere from 100 to 150 OTMs every day,� Berg said, adding that more than twice that number are apprehended daily in the McAllen area.

“In light of the national security issue, this is a very grave problem that needs to be dealt with, and it needs to be addressed on a national policy level in Washington,� Berg said.

SOLUTION!!

Get Troops to the Border NOW!!

Set up 24 hour magistrates that review papes, confirm deportation eligible, order deportation, put them in a van and drive them back to Mexico where they came in, and close the door behind them....permanently!

Rename Border Patrol.....Border Control.

Maybe it would change the way the "booby brass" setting booby traps in our immigraiton policy THINK!!

THINK!! What was I thinking. If the brass in Border Patrol were thinking, THEY would have requested Troops on the Border 5 years ago!!