Border apprehensions reflect demographic shift
CALEXICO — The recent replacement of two miles of the border barrier west of downtown Calexico has resulted in decreased Border Patrol apprehensions and use-of-force incidents along that segment.
Specifically, the barrier replacement project is being credited with a 64 percent drop in the number of overall apprehensions, as well as a 50 percent drop in reports of assaults on agents and use-of-force incidents, said El Centro Sector Assistant Chief David Kim.
“We know that putting that wall there has worked to reduce traffic in the area and move it to areas where we have a better chance of making an interdiction,” Kim said. “We were confident that it would, and looking at the numbers. it has.”
The $18 million project had replaced a segment of outdated fencing Border Patrol had identified in 2009 as having a higher volume of illegal entries and posing a greater safety risk to agents.
The project was completed in October, and the data Kim cited compared the 90-day period following its completion with data from the same period the previous year.
Despite overall apprehensions being at their lowest numbers in decades, the local sector has seen a 37 percent increase in the number of apprehensions in the year to date, compared to last year.
A dramatic shift in the demographics of those apprehended is also posing challenges for the agency.
Prior to this year, the majority of those apprehended along the sector’s 70-plus miles of international border were Mexican nationals.
“That’s no longer the case, and that just changed this year,” Kim said.
In the place of Mexican nationals, the local sector has increasingly encountered nationals from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Sri Lanka and India.
Compared to the same time last year, the number of Guatemalans apprehended by El Centro Sector has increased by 273 percent, while for Hondurans that increase is 226 percent, 320 percent for Salvadorans and 151 percent for Sri Lankans. The number of Indian nationals apprehended has dropped by 56 percent compared to last year, Border Patrol reported.
In contrast to the removal process that is employed for Mexican nationals arrested for illegal entry, the Border Patrol is forced to use a more time- and resource-consuming process for other immigrants, often referred to internally as Other Than Mexicans (OTMs), Kim said.
Further complicating matters is the increase of family units and unaccompanied minors that sector agents are encountering, which also often require the additional assistance of other federal agencies to process and house.
Just last month, El Centro Sector agents uncovered at least 22 cases of some type of family fraud, where individuals who are not related were presenting themselves as family.
The detection of such fraud is important to ensure children are safe and are not being exploited by traffickers, Kim said.
“It takes a lot of manpower to conduct the investigations/inquiries into the family fraud when we suspect it,” he said. “It’s an ongoing issue.”
The shift in demographics has presented other humanitarian issues for the agency, such as the expanded need for the caring and feeding of families, as well as providing medical care for migrants with illnesses and injuries.
Instances of reported H1N1, also known as the swine flu, and broken bones can result in extended hospital stays for migrants, which in turn requires agents assigned around the clock to monitor them.
“On average, 12 agents per day are watching and guarding people, mostly from countries other than Mexico, at local hospitals,” Kim said.
Amidst the contentious debate over border security, the El Centro Sector continues to hold out hope that additional resources are secured to enhance border security measures, including additional agents, technology and infrastructure.
“In our case, we have quite a bit of barrier, so there’s areas where we want better barriers,” Kim said.
Indeed, about 11 miles of improved barrier is slated to be installed in the near future.
Eight miles of that fencing will be added westward of the two miles that were recently replaced west of the downtown port of entry. Three miles of fencing east of the downtown port of entry will also be replaced.
While recent hiring has allowed the local sector to slowly boost its ranks, Kim said he would prefer to see an increase in the current hiring pace.
Plans to soon deploy the use of drones in the area have been approved, while other undisclosed detection-type capabilities have been added to the sector’s capabilities as well.
“Some new technologies are big deployed here that I can’t really talk about right now,” Kim said.