SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mexico -- The arrival of U.S. National Guard troops in Arizona has scared off illegal Mexican migrants along the border, significantly reducing crossings, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.
U.S. authorities said Monday that detentions along the U.S.-Mexico border decreased by 21 percent, to 26,994, in the first 10 days of June, compared with 34,077 for the same period a year ago.
Along the Arizona border, once the busiest crossing spot, detentions have dropped 23 percent, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.
Detentions dropped 31 percent, to 8,308 from 11,977, along the Texas and New Mexico border.
The desert region's blistering June temperatures typically drive down the number of migrants, but not so drastically, said Mario Martinez, a spokesman with the U.S. Border Patrol in Washington.
And this here sounds like a great lil dis-information campaign:
Laureano Miranda, a 37-year-old farm worker from Mexico's Sinaloa state, said he was trying to get back to a construction job in Los Angeles.
"We've heard that there are soldiers and armed 'migrant hunters' but we have to try," Miranda said. "If we don't make it in three tries, then we'll go back home."
Pssst. Mr. Miranda, there are no 'armed migrant hunters', but phrases like that sure help sell newspapers. Either way, it is a great bit of 'dis-information'. I say as long as there is no blood shed, use all the tools at the ready.
Speaking of tools:
Reform must break the culture that encourages illegal work force.
Tough talk
With estimates of illegal residents in this country reaching as high as 12 million, immigration reform has become a popular refrain.
In the Arizona Legislature, a bill sought to have illegal immigrants arrested as trespassers and let employers go unpunished if they fired workers upon learning they were illegal. Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed the measure on Tuesday.
Nationally, the Senate and House proposals focus primarily on border security, but they also include provisions to quash the illegal work force:
● Higher penalties and fines.
● A mandatory electronic system to verify work eligibility.
● Fraud-proof identification cards.
● Sharing of information between the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
The Senate bill, which includes a guest-worker program with a path to permanent legal status, would provide more agents to investigate employers. The House bill would not. It deals mostly with border enforcement and makes illegal entry a felony.
President Bush favors a temporary guest-worker program and tamper-proof Social Security cards. He also wants harsher penalties for those who hire illegal immigrants, comparing current fines to parking tickets.
Such changes would worry illegal workers such as Quintanilla, but so far he's willing to live with the risks.
"Why did I come to the United States — to hide?" he asked. "No, I came to the United States to give my family a better life and give my best for a country I'm helping build."
Implementing an immigration plan would take years, even if Congress could reach a compromise, says Daniel Griswold, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based libertarian public-policy research foundation.
"There are just a lot of challenges between where we are at now and legislation that could pass Congress and be signed by the president," says Griswold, who has studied immigration for nine years.
Getting there means overpowering a business lobby that has fought hard to preserve the status quo, Oltman says.
"That has been the game all these years — to ask those in power not to enforce the law, drag their feet and make excuses," Oltman says.
Staying there means withstanding shifting political winds, Papademetriou says.
"This is serious money we are talking about, and this is a country that is having serious budget problems," he says. "My guess is that as soon as the country moves on from the issue of immigration, among the first things that will fall by the wayside will be funding for a robust effort at employer sanctions."
Big show
As lawmakers debated reform in recent weeks, Homeland Security unveiled its plan to crack down on employers. Like a Hollywood producer premiering a film, the department put on a big show meant to leave an impression.
Officials stood tall and talked tough on April 20 in Washington, D.C., one day after agents arrested more than 1,100 illegal workers and seven current and former executives of pallet maker Ifco Systems at 45 sites nationwide, including Phoenix.
"Our nation's communities cannot be a wild frontier where illegal aliens and unscrupulous employees subvert our nation's laws," Julie Myers, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that day.
The plan — Phase 2 of the Secure Border Initiative, which first concentrated on border control — promises to levy criminal charges, not just fines, to punish employers who repeatedly hire illegal immigrants. It also aims to eliminate workers' use of fake Social Security numbers by giving Homeland Security access to Social Security data.
Already under way is the shift toward criminal indictments and away from fines, which range from $275 to $11,000 per violation and which many employers see as a cost of doing business, says Russell Ahr, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman.
This is a problem as wide as the southern border and there are no easy fixes, but steps like this coupled with more physical barriers at the border are a good start.
When is the last time you wrote your friendly neighborhood congressperson? On a state or federal level, I'm sure they would just love to hear from you! Follow this link to find out how to contact and send 'em a message.
NO border security needed here.
