| | |  Americas & Beyond | September 2008 
Arizona Called 'Ground Zero' in Immigration Fight
 Arthur H. Rotstein - Associated Press
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 |  | We have a ways to go, but we're a lot closer today than we have been, and we're seeing the results.
- Chief Patrol Agent Robert Gilbert |  | | | |
Arizona is "ground zero" for the Border Patrol in its quest to gain effective control of illegal immigration into the United States, and agents are making headway, the chief of the agency's busiest sector says.
The progress is reflected in a 16 percent drop in apprehensions in the patrol's Tucson sector through Aug. 19 for the current fiscal year, compared with the same period a year ago, and by what officials believe is an even bigger decrease in entries, Chief Patrol Agent Robert Gilbert said last week. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
"We have a ways to go, but we're a lot closer today than we have been, and we're seeing the results," he said. "We're at a 10-year low right now with apprehensions."
As of Aug. 19, agents in the Tucson sector had made 291,000 apprehensions vs. nearly 349,000 through the same date last year.
Gilbert noted the numbers are lower than figures hit in the 2002 fiscal year, when apprehensions plummeted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And they're far below the highest arrest total of the decade - 557,000 during the 2000 fiscal year.
But the sector, with its 262 miles of border, is still the busiest on the Mexican frontier, registering 46 percent of all Border Patrol arrests and 50 percent of its total marijuana seizures, Gilbert said.
As a result, the sector has received the most border fencing and vehicle barriers and has been the test site for high-tech pilot programs, from virtual fencing to unmanned surveillance drones.
"This is for the Border Patrol our ground zero," Gilbert said.
Gilbert credits several factors for sector successes, including increases in manpower, the fences and other physical barriers, efforts to prosecute some illegal immigrants and a program to fly some illegal immigrants caught in Arizona to the Mexican interior. The aerial repatriation program is intended to separate illegal immigrants from their smugglers.
"We've tried a lot of different things here, but one of the mistakes that I believe we've made is trying to eat the whole apple at once," Gilbert said.
His team has divided the sector into six areas and agents focus first on those that are considered a priority. Gilbert's mantra is: "Gain control, maintain control, expand operations - gain, maintain, expand."
Gilbert said success in the Tucson sector has resulted in some shifting traffic, with pressure on one part of the border causing more movement elsewhere. He said the agency was prepared for that, however.
Gilbert said other factors are also deterring illegal immigrants from coming to and staying in Arizona, including the passage of state immigration laws, greater enforcement by local authorities and the efforts of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which concentrates on enforcement away from the border. |
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