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 News from Around the Americas | November 2007 
Chertoff: Gains at Border Are 'Significant First Step'
 Mike Madden - azcentral.com
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 |  | We haven't completed the job yet, but we've made a significant first step and are reversing the tide of illegal migration between the ports of entry.
- Michael Chertoff |  | |
Washington - Arrests of illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexican border dropped by 20 percent in the past year, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced Tuesday, attributing the change to increased efforts to enforce immigration and border-security laws.
The Bush administration has hired more Border Patrol agents, stepped up raids on companies that employ unauthorized workers and spent billions of dollars on new fences and high-tech security devices to stop people from entering the country illegally.
Chertoff said the results show that authorities are beginning to get control of the border.
"We haven't completed the job yet, but we've made a significant first step and are reversing the tide of illegal migration between the ports of entry," Chertoff told reporters in the first of what he said would be regular updates on immigration and the borders.
Chertoff also said the administration will soon release a proposed regulation designed to make it easier for agricultural businesses to hire foreign workers under seasonal, temporary visas. The proposed rule would ease requirements for advertising jobs to U.S. workers before hiring foreigners and could soften a serious farm-labor crisis caused in part by slowing illegal immigration.
But Chertoff focused Tuesday on demonstrating progress in securing the porous Southwestern border.
During fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30, the Border Patrol made 20 percent fewer arrests on the Southwestern border than in the year before, marking the lowest level of arrests in five years.
Arrests in the nation's interior were up significantly, with criminal charges filed against 863 people, up from 716 the year before.
Administrative deportation proceedings were started against 4,077 unauthorized workers, up from 3,667 in 2006.
The Border Patrol hired more than 2,500 new agents, bringing the total number to 14,923. The administration wants to have nearly 15,000 on staff by the end of the fiscal year.
Despite the improvement, an independent government audit released Monday night found that thousands of foreigners who should have been barred from entering the country came in through legal crossings at land, air and seaports in fiscal 2006.
"Weaknesses in (U.S. Customs and Border Protection's) operations increase the potential that terrorists and inadmissible travelers could enter the country," said the audit by the Government Accountability Office.
Homeland Security delayed releasing year-end statistics on apprehensions until Chertoff's speech, though officials have distributed similar information earlier in previous years. The administration has been working hard to show that its focus on the border has had an effect, especially since President Bush ordered National Guard troops last year to assist Border Patrol agents in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.
Though officials met their goal of building 70 miles of pedestrian fencing this year, members of Congress have pushed for quicker construction. By the end of next year, Homeland Security will have built 670 miles of fencing, counting both pedestrian barricades and vehicle barriers, Chertoff said. |
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