By Martin Brass (Part IV of V)
Push
Here, Pop There
El Paso TX, and San Diego CA, were the two busiest gateways in illegal immigration crossings. The crackdown began. Operation Hold-the-Line was initiated in El Paso in 1992, Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego in 1994, and Operation Rio Grande was established in 1997 in the McAllen sector in South Texas. In that program, agents at the border were tripled.
Operation Hold-the-Line strategy included installing fences, and the use of sophisticated technology, including monitoring devices. The San Diego border had become violent, and Border Agents were struggling to control the "chaos" and anarchy" in the nightly riots. Mexicans across the border threw rocks at them and fired shots, then dash across en masse in "banzai runs."
"The Border Patrol has absolutely no jurisdiction over the Mexican side of the border. The Mexicans can stand there and taunt the Patrol, and there's nothing we can do, until they cross into the United States," Carter confirmed.
Operation Gatekeeper more than doubled Border Patrol Agents and vehicles at the fourteen-mile San Diego border, installed lighting, infrared scopes, underground sensors and Computer IDENT system to track illegal aliens.
"Due to efforts in the nineties, entries into the United States decreased, The flow of illegal aliens at those fortified borders where additional agents were placed, such as San Diego CA and El Paso TX, apprehensions decreased significantly.
"During that time the Clinton Administration, and Attorney General Janet Reno, were very supportive of the Border Patrol. They went to Congress with the numbers, and asked to increase our resources. They had no choice but to approve. In 1972, there were 2,250 agents. When I left two years ago there were over 10,000 agents," Carter told us.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out they will go east or west of El Paso, and through the rougher routes and rugged terrain, knowing they were taking a greater risk.
"Lots of things have to be considered to create an effective barrier. There are the natural barriers. You have the Rio Grande. In Del Rio, TX, you open up the dam and they can't get across. Rugged mountain terrain makes it impossible to cross. Big Ben country is very rugged country. Marfa, Alpine, Presidio, the Rio Grande, and the high canyons are desolate, hot and miserable. Natural barriers there slow down illegal immigrants," Carter said.
"Most Americans are opposed to any kind of fence. Remember, we knocked down the Berlin wall. The original barriers in San Diego consisted of landing mats (pierced-steel planking), metal that was welded together and buried a couple of feet in the ground, leaning towards Mexico. It was pretty successful.
"Then the Mexicans started to butt holes in it. You can drive down and see the three layers of fencing that were put up in San Diego for border control.
"When the fence was built in San Diego, the border patrol had to develop a strategy. Push the balloon here, it pops up there. From San Diego to Tucson, all the way down the border, a strategy had to be developed in such a way that the flow could be controlled." Carter continued.
Migrants were diverted into dangerous territories, many getting lost.
The Border Patrol was forced to shift its efforts from patrolling to rescuing victims," Patty Mancha, Border Patrol spokesperson told visalaw.com. "They are spending as much time searching for victims as they are doing their regular job."
For two days in May 2001, migrants were lost during Arizona's hellish heat season. Helicopters and four-wheel-drive vehicles, searching for survivors transported eleven injured to local hospitals. Two others were found after an all-night search, but footprints showed that three others were missing.
"We intend to work this until we've made sure there is no one left out there," Border Patrol spokesman Maurice More said. Coyotes who smuggled victims through the rugged terrain of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge promised to return with water, and told the migrants to walk for "a couple of hours" to a highway. The highway was fifty miles away. Five were able to walk far enough to find agents in the scorching 115-degree heat, reports the Washington Post.
The Border Patrol got lots of grief for their role in the crackdown.
"What's causing it (the deaths of illegal immigrants) is the deadly strategy of the Border Patrol that has forced people into the most hazardous area of the desert," said the Rev. John Fife, Tucson pastor who helped build a watering station for immigrants in Arizona, the Post continues.
U.S. Rep. Tancredo (R-CO), supportive of the crackdowns, reacted after an agent was shot at by Mexicans in a humvee, five miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border in 2001. "I cannot in good conscience stand by and watch another incursion along our border take place.
"Unless we open our eyes and recognize that what's happening along the U.S./ Mexico border is real, one of our guys is going to get killed. "As far as I am concerned, that (incursion) should be an act of war," reports the Sierra Times.
Dozens of Border Patrol Agents have died since the organization of the Agency in 1924. Twenty-one have been killed since 1992.
El Paso TX, and San Diego CA, were the two busiest gateways in illegal immigration crossings. The crackdown began. Operation Hold-the-Line was initiated in El Paso in 1992, Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego in 1994, and Operation Rio Grande was established in 1997 in the McAllen sector in South Texas. In that program, agents at the border were tripled.
Operation Hold-the-Line strategy included installing fences, and the use of sophisticated technology, including monitoring devices. The San Diego border had become violent, and Border Agents were struggling to control the "chaos" and anarchy" in the nightly riots. Mexicans across the border threw rocks at them and fired shots, then dash across en masse in "banzai runs."
"The Border Patrol has absolutely no jurisdiction over the Mexican side of the border. The Mexicans can stand there and taunt the Patrol, and there's nothing we can do, until they cross into the United States," Carter confirmed.
Operation Gatekeeper more than doubled Border Patrol Agents and vehicles at the fourteen-mile San Diego border, installed lighting, infrared scopes, underground sensors and Computer IDENT system to track illegal aliens.
"Due to efforts in the nineties, entries into the United States decreased, The flow of illegal aliens at those fortified borders where additional agents were placed, such as San Diego CA and El Paso TX, apprehensions decreased significantly.
"During that time the Clinton Administration, and Attorney General Janet Reno, were very supportive of the Border Patrol. They went to Congress with the numbers, and asked to increase our resources. They had no choice but to approve. In 1972, there were 2,250 agents. When I left two years ago there were over 10,000 agents," Carter told us.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out they will go east or west of El Paso, and through the rougher routes and rugged terrain, knowing they were taking a greater risk.
"Lots of things have to be considered to create an effective barrier. There are the natural barriers. You have the Rio Grande. In Del Rio, TX, you open up the dam and they can't get across. Rugged mountain terrain makes it impossible to cross. Big Ben country is very rugged country. Marfa, Alpine, Presidio, the Rio Grande, and the high canyons are desolate, hot and miserable. Natural barriers there slow down illegal immigrants," Carter said.
"Most Americans are opposed to any kind of fence. Remember, we knocked down the Berlin wall. The original barriers in San Diego consisted of landing mats (pierced-steel planking), metal that was welded together and buried a couple of feet in the ground, leaning towards Mexico. It was pretty successful.
"Then the Mexicans started to butt holes in it. You can drive down and see the three layers of fencing that were put up in San Diego for border control.
"When the fence was built in San Diego, the border patrol had to develop a strategy. Push the balloon here, it pops up there. From San Diego to Tucson, all the way down the border, a strategy had to be developed in such a way that the flow could be controlled." Carter continued.
Migrants were diverted into dangerous territories, many getting lost.
The Border Patrol was forced to shift its efforts from patrolling to rescuing victims," Patty Mancha, Border Patrol spokesperson told visalaw.com. "They are spending as much time searching for victims as they are doing their regular job."
For two days in May 2001, migrants were lost during Arizona's hellish heat season. Helicopters and four-wheel-drive vehicles, searching for survivors transported eleven injured to local hospitals. Two others were found after an all-night search, but footprints showed that three others were missing.
"We intend to work this until we've made sure there is no one left out there," Border Patrol spokesman Maurice More said. Coyotes who smuggled victims through the rugged terrain of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge promised to return with water, and told the migrants to walk for "a couple of hours" to a highway. The highway was fifty miles away. Five were able to walk far enough to find agents in the scorching 115-degree heat, reports the Washington Post.
The Border Patrol got lots of grief for their role in the crackdown.
"What's causing it (the deaths of illegal immigrants) is the deadly strategy of the Border Patrol that has forced people into the most hazardous area of the desert," said the Rev. John Fife, Tucson pastor who helped build a watering station for immigrants in Arizona, the Post continues.
U.S. Rep. Tancredo (R-CO), supportive of the crackdowns, reacted after an agent was shot at by Mexicans in a humvee, five miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border in 2001. "I cannot in good conscience stand by and watch another incursion along our border take place.
"Unless we open our eyes and recognize that what's happening along the U.S./ Mexico border is real, one of our guys is going to get killed. "As far as I am concerned, that (incursion) should be an act of war," reports the Sierra Times.
Dozens of Border Patrol Agents have died since the organization of the Agency in 1924. Twenty-one have been killed since 1992.
No comments:
Post a Comment