Border Patrol’s Dual Role of Amnesty, Enforcement Stirs Tension

SAN DIEGO —  From the time the amnesty program got under way almost a year ago, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has portrayed itself as an agency eager to assist undocumented immigrants who might qualify for legal status.

Not only was the INS consciously working against its negative image in the immigrant community, but officials were undertaking the task at a time when its enforcement arm--the U.S. Border Patrol--continued to arrest tens of thousands of people in San Diego County and elsewhere along the border each month.

As the INS held press conferences, fairs, community meetings and other events to drum up support for the amnesty program, the Border Patrol, with more than 700 uniformed agents in San Diego County, was continuing what it has always done: Arresting undocumented migrants. In the last two months, the patrol recorded more than 100,000 arrests in the San Diego area.

Role in Amnesty Questioned

From the outset, many critics have questioned the agency’s dual roles. That concern was heightened in San Diego when Border Patrol agents recently showed up near two amnesty recruiting sites organized by a Catholic social services group, disrupting the sign-up operations.

“This kind of thing has to put a chilling effect on the whole amnesty process,” charged Roberto Martinez, a longtime Chicano activist and Border Patrol critic who heads the U.S.-Mexico program in San Diego for the American Friends Service Committee, a social action arm of the Quaker Church.

Others echoed Martinez’s allegation, voicing outrage that border agents would patrol anywhere near amnesty recruiting sites--places where, the INS has vowed, there would be no immigration raids.

“That’s really a low blow,” said Ozvaldo Venzor, who heads an Encinitas-based group known as Friends of the Undocumented. “It’s really hitting below the belt.”

The Border Patrol says it has never raided amnesty sites or attempted to disrupt sign-up efforts, but came across the areas as part of routine patrols. William Veal, deputy chief patrol agent in San Diego, said agents have deliberately avoided known sign-up areas.

“We don’t want to discourage aliens from coming forward,” Veal said. “We’re sensitive to the fact that our presence there might deter them.”

Relation to INS

A broader dispute about the patrol’s role in implementing the new immigration law, and its relations with its parent agency, the INS, also is at issue. Since the outset of the amnesty program, critics in border areas have charged that the patrol--which has some autonomy from the rest of the INS bureaucracy--has been routinely arresting foreigners who should lawfully be released and allowed to file for amnesty. The patrol has consistently denied the charge.

“This just shows again how the INS and the Border Patrol are acting like two different agencies, and neither one knows what the other is doing,” Martinez said.

Not so, say federal officials. “I’m highly insulted and incensed that we would be accused of having infighting between the INS and the Border Patrol over amnesty,” said Harold Ezell, INS Western regional commissioner. “It’s a bunch of baloney. They (Border Patrol officials) have been very involved and very helpful with amnesty.”

Officials of INS, a largely non-uniformed agency of bureaucrats, have been most involved in selling the amnesty concept to the undocumented community. From the outset, the INS attempted to overcome credibility problems among immigrants by vowing that sign-up sites would not be raided, application forms would be kept confidential, and that the entire process was not a “sting” designed to ensnare undocumented immigrants.

“We’re here to serve people,” Ezell has said on numerous occasions.

1.4 Million Applicants

Ezell and the INS clearly have had considerable success, attracting more than 1.4 million amnesty applicants nationwide. But many thousands of potential applicants have failed to apply, and critics of the process say the agency’s credibility may be a major reason why. The recent Border Patrol presence near amnesty recruiting sites in San Diego can only add to the mistrust, they say.

“This is enough to put people back to the stage where they were several months before the legalization program started,” said Marco Antonio Rodriguez, executive director of Centro de Asuntos Migratorios, a nonprofit advocacy group for immigrants in the border area.

To some, the agency’s dual roles--encouraging amnesty applicants while at the same time arresting huge numbers of undocumented people--presented a conflict that many Border Patrol agents have been unable to overcome. Under amnesty guidelines, patrol agents are required to question aliens about whether they qualify for amnesty.

“For the Border Patrol, it’s been business as usual, and I think that’s a total contradiction,” Rodriguez said.

INS and Border Patrol officials do not see it that way.

While amnesty has perhaps been the most visible aspect of the 1986 immigration law, authorities note that the law was chiefly aimed at curbing the flow of illegal aliens through the southern border--a flow that many lawmakers in Congress saw as a threat to U.S. society. Indeed, the amnesty concept was included in the law largely as an enticement to enlist the support of congressmen and others who otherwise would not have backed the legislation. The amnesty law’s other two key provisions--a buildup of Border Patrol forces and new sanctions against employers who hire undocumented workers--are designed specifically to cut off the flow of illegal immigration.

“The law was also meant to maintain the integrity of the U.S. borders,” noted Veal of the Border Patrol in San Diego.

Sign-Up Location Disputes

The most recent dispute involves sign-up efforts at opposite ends of San Diego County by Catholic Community Services, an arm of the Roman Catholic Church that is one of many agencies under contract with the INS to assist in the amnesty process.

On March 30, according to Robert Moser, who works on immigration matters for Catholic Community Services in San Diego, an amnesty recruitment session involving about 30 undocumented workers in a field in the Rancho Penasquitos area was disrupted when a Border Patrol van was sighted. While Moser agreed that the van’s presence was not a “raid,” he said that all of the migrants scattered and “took to the hills and canyons” when they saw the van. One man was later seen in Border Patrol custody, said Moser, adding that immigration officials had been told in advance about the sign-up effort.

Veal said a patrol vehicle passed within 1 1/2 miles of the site on “routine” patrol. “I would hardly characterize it as a raid,” Veal said. He said no one was arrested.

The second incident occurred Monday morning in the Otay Mesa area. Moser said an amnesty worker arrived at a farm where he was scheduled to pick up about 15 prospective applicants and drive them to an amnesty processing site. A Border Patrol officer was spotted near the farm, which amnesty workers use frequently for recruitment, Moser said. The worker was told by the agent that the migrants would be arrested if he attempted to transport them, according to both Moser and Veal. The worker returned without the applicants, Moser said.

Communication Breakdown

Moser characterized the incident as a “breakdown of communication” that has been blown out of proportion. “I am convinced that there was no intentional effort to disrupt or interfere with the legalization process,” said Moser, whose agency has generally held back from direct criticism of the INS.

Moser agreed, however, that the immigration law’s “multiple goals” could create a tension for enforcement officers who must deal with both arresting illegal immigrants and assisting amnesty applicants. “Any time you have a balance or multiple goals, there are bound to be times with tension,” Moser said.

Critics also point to an alleged “pattern” in which agents have refused to recognize that some illegal aliens arrested might qualify for amnesty.

The 1986 immigration law requires that all aliens who can make a case for amnesty--even those detained by the Border Patrol or other authorities--be given the opportunity to apply. Instead, critics charge, the Border Patrol has been routinely arresting prospective applicants and sending them back to Mexico, sometimes reportedly destroying their papers or coercing them to sign documents obligating them to leave the United States. Leaving the country may jeopardize an amnesty application.

“They don’t seem to care whether these people qualify or not,” said Martinez of the American Friends Service Committee. “They’re just going about things business as usual.”

Border Patrol officials say that is not the case.

“We go out of our way not to interfere with the legalization process,” Veal said.