Flow of illegal immigrants to U.S. starts to slow

International Herald Tribune ^ | February 20, 2007 | James C. McKinley Jr.

[A. Pole]

SAN LUIS RÍO COLORADO, Mexico: All along the U.S.-Mexican border, there are signs that the measures that the U.S. Border Patrol and other agencies have taken over the past year, from erecting new barriers to posting 6,000 National Guardsmen as armed sentinels, are beginning to slow the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States.

For 10 years, Eduardo Valenzuela has been crossing the Mexican border near Yuma, Arizona, illegally, trekking over desert scrub and hopping on a freight train to get to his job with a construction company in Phoenix, Arizona.

But on a recent afternoon, Valenzuela and four travel companions from his hometown of Los Mochis plopped down on a bench in a park in the border town of San Luis Río Colorado, exhausted and dispirited. Border patrol agents had caught them two times over three days, hounding them with helicopters and four-wheel-drive trucks.

"It's become much more difficult," Valenzuela said, echoing the comments of dozens of other migrants.

[...]

Border Patrol commanders argue the slackening flow of migrants belies the conventional wisdom that it is impossible to stem illegal migration along a 2,000 mile, or 3,200 kilometer, border. Many veteran officers in the force are now beginning to believe that with sufficient resources, it can be controlled.

[...]

One of the migrants was a 51-year-old plumber from Acámbaro, Guanajuato, who asked that his name not be used because he was ashamed of the criminal conviction.

[...]

"I had no idea until they grabbed us and told us we were going to court," he recalled. "They are using barbaric techniques." But he acknowledged the stint in jail had convinced him not to try again, even if he is unable to pay his son's college tuition.

[...]

[TommyDale]

It's about time!

[JOHANNES801]

Barbaric tactics,boo hooo

[FreePaul]

Just move along now, the government has everything under control. They are even controlling the news about border crossings.

[Dante3]

We better start rounding up and deporting the hordes already in this country. It can be done easily, both directly and indirectly. President Eisenhower did it.

[taxed2death]

The 4 illegal knuckleheads who work next door to my shop still cross over 4 times a year without a hitch. They even told me how easy it was to defeat thermal imaging by lathering themselves up with mud. Border "security" is a bad joke.

[upchuck]

"It's become much more difficult," Valenzuela said, echoing the comments of dozens of other migrants.

Boo fricking hoo.

How can President Bush let this happen?

[puppypusher]

I'll believe that when I see it.From what I have seen the numbers of criminal aliens is increasing,not decreasing.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

It's a ruse to sucker us into giving them amnesty.

Watch and see. As soon as we do, they'll flood back over the border again.

[Clemenza]

It seems to me that there has been a slowdown of immigrants (legal or illegal) into the NY/NJ area, over the past three years or so. I remember how we went from having nearly ZERO folks from Mexico, then having a huge influx from 1994-2000, with a few more coming after 2001. Many Indians have returned to India, but some are still coming, so it is a wash. Same is true of the Chinese and the Poles.

Of course, since Mexico is now down to 2.3 children per woman (and falling), a bottoming out should be expected.

[varon]

...............to posting 6,000 National Guardsmen as armed sentinels,.............

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Since when have the National guard been armed sentinels on the border??? All reports I've read is that they do not carry weapons and are mainly engaged in relieving the Border Patrol from their administrative, maintenance and other manual labor duties.

[John Jorsett]

The only barometer to gauge whether migrants are being discouraged to attempt entering the United States is how many migrants are caught. In the past four months, the number has dropped 27 percent compared with the same period last year. In two sections around Yuma and near Del Rio, Texas, the numbers have fallen by nearly two- thirds, officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security say.

I heard an ex-BP agent on the Roger Hedgecock show today. He said that he's in touch with active agents and they're telling him that some supervisory agents are sympathetic to Mexico. He named one specifically (last name Olmos, don't remember the first) and said she is inhibiting apprehensions by denying agents equipment like night vision goggle, and she's sending agents to cover areas that are quiet instead of areas that have a lot of activity.

I don't know if the guy's right, but I can see where if one wanted to fudge the numbers and make it look like apprehensions have dropped, it wouldn't be too hard to do it.

[Mikey_1962]

You wouldn't know by the numbers I see here in rural Alabama...

[EagleUSA]

It's about time!
----
It is about time a FENCE was built, and the flow STOPPED! (Not reduced). What a crock. This is Bush and a complicit Congress in action. The flood of illegals continues as well as the HUGE sums of money and services stolen from the taxpayers to fund this travesty.

[Principled]

... or northeast georgia...

this is baloney

[Clemenza]

I think what you see in Alabama and Georgia is an outflow of folks who originally settled in metro Atlanta or Charlotte in the 1990s/early '00s, who have now spread out to other parts of the South.

[Fireone]

Has anyone looked around?
They're all here already!

[Disambiguator]

"They are using barbaric techniques."

Translation: "They caught us!"

[Mikey_1962]

I came here for an Engineering assignment from rural Northeast Ohio...all full up there too!

[umgud]

If the birthrate keeps falling in Mexico, they will be in very serious trouble long before we will because nobody is flocking to Mexico like to the US.