|
Non-Mexicans Arrested at U.S. Border Nearly Doubled
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of people from countries other than Mexico arrested trying to cross the U.S. southern border has almost doubled this year, the head of the U.S. border patrol told the U.S. Congress on Tuesday.In all, the border patrol has detained 919,000 illegal immigrants so far this year, of whom 119,000 were non-Mexicans. The largest single number -- over 12,000 -- came from Brazil. U.S. officials believe the increase stems from non-Mexican illegal immigrants knowing they will be released even if they are caught crossing the border. Mexicans caught by U.S. border patrols trying to enter the country illegally are usually immediately returned to their native land... But Mexico accepts only Mexicans, so any non-Mexicans are checked against government watch lists as a potential security or criminal threat. If their names do not appear, they are normally released on their own recognizance and told to appear at a deportation hearing often months in the future. Some 85 percent fail to show up for the hearing and are never seen again. [Chief of the Border Patrol] Aguilar said that last year the border patrol detained 644 people from "countries of concern" and had stopped some 500 this year. They were subjected to intense interrogation and investigation. Immigration bills being submitted to Congress seek to increase the detention space at the border, which currently stands at just under 20,000 beds. Aguilar said the best way to deter people from crossing the border illegally was to increase the number of those detained. Leonard Kovensky, acting director of detention and removal operations at the Department of Homeland Security, told the subcommittee his department deported 85,000 illegal aliens with criminal records last year and had already removed over 45,000 in the first four months of this year. At a separate subcommittee hearing on alien smuggling across the Mexican border, Indiana Republican Rep. Mark Souder criticized the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for only devoting 7 percent of its investigative hours last year to the problem. Posted by: Pappy 2005-07-15 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=124083 |