BP deploys risk-based strategy
CALEXICO — Amid the relative hustle and bustle of pedestrian and vehicle activity in Calexico’s downtown area, one can observe the highly visible presence of the U.S. Border Patrol.
The agents’ notable presence is a reflection of the agency’s focus on a risk-based enforcement strategy, as well as the fact that the downtown area provides illegal border crossers with varied options to elude both detection and apprehension.
“People will quickly blend in and it becomes more of a challenge to detect them,” said Agent James Fail, with the agency’s Public Affairs Office.
Maintaining the integrity of the 70-mile stretch of international boundary that El Centro Sector agents patrol currently involves a three-prong approach that includes rapid response, as well as a focus on information analysis and integrating its efforts with other law enforcement agencies, Fail said.
The three-prong strategy — outlined in the agency’s 2012-2016 National Strategic Plan — itself is a slight departure from the previous initiatives the agency deployed to help safeguard the nation’s borders, which included increased hiring as well as additional equipment and infrastructure, Fail said.
The subsequent reduction in spending on hiring and infrastructure had prompted the Border Patrol in recent years to develop a risk-based strategy that identifies areas of concern and how best to address them.
“Based on those major threats we focus our resources toward those threats,” Fail said.
A recent agency-sponsored tour of the border highlighted how the Border Patrol deploys many of its resources.
First line of defense
The installation of the physical structures located in the Valley that serve to keep both pedestrians and vehicles from entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico date back about 10 years, while the landing mat fencing located near downtown Calexico predates the rest, agency officials said.
Prior to President Donald Trump’s executive orders calling for enhanced border security and immigration enforcement, El Centro Sector officials had requested the replacement of the outdated fencing located near downtown Calexico as well as the installation of a secondary fence near the Gran Plaza outlets.
The installation of a secondary fence near the Gran Plaza outlets would make it that much more difficult for illegal border crossers to enter into the United States and attempt to blend in with mall shoppers.
“It would pretty much shut this area down,” Fail said during the recent tour of the international border.
The tendency for individuals to exploit that particular stretch of fencing was made evident in late April, when a group of about 10 immigrants in the country illegally were apprehended near the mall, agency officials said.
Although there is hardly any place along the county’s 70-mile border with Mexico that is not exploited by immigrant and contraband smugglers, much of that activity often is centered around populated areas on both sides of the border.
Within the downtown Calexico area, the presence of a large number of pedestrians, vehicles, businesses and residences poses additional challenges for detection and apprehension, and often reduce the amount of time agents have to respond to suspected illegal activity, agency officials said.
Agents can also be typically seen parked on residential streets a few blocks north of the international boundary to provide an extra set of eyes in the event a fence-jumper is successfully able to elude immediate apprehension and attempt to flee northbound into the surrounding residential area.
A semicircle of traffic barriers located where Heffernan Avenue meets the border also acts as a hurdle for illegal border crossers, providing additional time for agents to get a visual of any suspect on foot who may then attempt to blend into the adjacent crowds of passersby.
In addition to remote-controlled surveillance cameras, agents also rely heavily on their own observations to detect illegal crossings and contraband smuggling.
Agents must keep constant vigilance and are at risk of potentially missing illegal activity in high-density areas if their eyes happen to be diverted.
“If we didn’t see it, there’s no way for us to track an illegal entry,” Fail said.
Smuggling activity
In the Valley, the transition from the spring to the summer has typically corresponded with a spike in illegal border and contraband crossings, followed by a sharp decrease once the higher temperatures arrive, agency officials said.
Outside of the urbanized area of Calexico, desert terrain makes up the majority of the landscape where the border fence is situated, while the eastern county also includes a mountainous region that lacks any physical barrier but remains difficult for vehicles and pedestrians to access, agency officials said.
“It’s probably one of our most problematic patrol areas,” said local sector Assistant Patrol Chief David Kim. “It takes a lot of manpower to patrol — you can’t do it by vehicle.”
The dangers that extreme weather conditions and harsh desert terrain potentially pose for immigrants seem to routinely be ignored by the transnational criminal organizations that operate on both sides of the border in the Valley region.
Since Oct. 1, local agents have participated in 10 documented rescues of immigrants, while that figure was eight for the previous fiscal year, said Fail.
“Smugglers have no regard for human life,” he said. “There’s money to be made and that’s all they really care about.”
One of the more troubling incidents involved the discovery by agents of a four-year-old Guatemalan girl that was allegedly abandoned near Mount Signal in March by smugglers who had returned to Mexico after leaving the child alone on a road near the border.
Typically, immigrants that cross illegally into the U.S. do so with assistance from smugglers. Nor is it uncommon to have organizations associated with both immigrant and narcotics smuggling, Fail said.
“There are people who double-dip,” he said.
Immigrant smuggling appears to provide the greatest profit margin compared to risk, while smuggling marijuana reportedly can come with its own set of financial and logistical drawbacks.
While Latin American immigrants often pay anywhere between $2,000 to $5,000 to be smuggled across the southern border, immigrants from other far flung nations such as China or Eastern Europe will pay up to $8,000 to $10,000, said local Supervisory Agent Miguel Garcia.
“That’s where the majority of their money comes from,” he said, referring to the smugglers.
Most immigrants in the country illegally that are apprehended by Border Patrol agents are taken into custody without incident, but some will attempt to resist arrest on occasion.
“Usually, when we get someone that kind of puts up a fight, we often have reason to believe that we’re dealing with a smuggler more often than not,” Fail said. “If they know they have something to lose by being apprehended, then they will put up a fight.”
Recent trends
In recent months, federal officials have taken note of a dramatic drop in the number of individuals apprehended by Border Patrol agents for crossing illegally into the U.S.
The downward trend owes a lot to President Donald Trump’s executive orders regarding border security and immigration enforcement, said U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly last month during a Congressional subcommittee hearing.
In March, less than 12,500 immigrants were apprehended entering the country illegally along the Southwest border, down from more than 33,000 in March 2016, Kelly stated to Congress.
“This decrease in apprehensions is no accident,” Kelly told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on April 5.
Kelly also acknowledged during questioning from members of Congress that “it is unlikely that we will build a wall, a physical barrier, from sea to shining sea.”
On Tuesday, the White House released a budget proposal that included $2.6 billion for border security — $1.6 billion of which will be for “bricks and mortar for a wall,” the national media reported.
That figure is $2.5 billion less than what had been proposed in mid-March when the White House budget director called for $4.12 billion to fund the border wall with the Trump budget blueprint.