200 Caught in Baja, S.D. Police Net

A group of 60 Baja California State Judicial Police swooped down Friday evening on a major illegal crossing zone along the U.S.-Mexican border, arresting about 200 people as they waited to enter the United States illegally.

The operation was coordinated with the U.S. Border Patrol and San Diego Police Department, said Jose Encinas Filatoff, chief of a homicide squad of the state police in Tijuana. The raid, he said, was an attempt to cut down on violent crime along the border.

The hourlong operation, involving 60 state police agents and more than 3 dozen vehicles, occurred along a milelong slough of the international border near the banks of the Tijuana River. The area--believed to be the largest single crossing zone for undocumented immigrants along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border--has also been the site of many violent attacks on migrants.

‘Going After Thieves...’

“We’re going after the thieves and the murderers and rapists,” said Encinas, who spoke at state police headquarters in Tijuana as the 200 arrestees were being questioned in a nearby conference room.

Friday’s operation was not the first such joint operation but it was by far the largest one involving state police, and the most thoroughly planned. There has been at least one similar operation earlier this year involving federal police.

Police said they were checking those detained to see if they had any weapons or criminal records. Those who did not appear to be violent were to be released, Encinas said.

“We’re not going after people because they’re immigrants,” Encinas said.

However, several people who were arrested maintained that they were committing no crime under Mexican law but only wished to enter the United States to work.

“I just came here to cross, and I found this,” said one arrestee, as he headed down from the Tijuana River levee into a waiting police truck that would take him downtown.

At the scene, U.S. Border Patrol officers standing on the U.S. side of the tattered border fence occasionally pointed out suspects to Mexican police officers. But Border Patrol agents at the scene declined to comment on the operation.

Operation El Bordo

Mexican police dubbed the joint crackdown Operation El Bordo. In Tijuana, the area is known as El Bordo--literally, the edge.

Such joint operations between U. S. and Mexican authorities have drawn considerable criticism in Mexico, where U. S. police agencies, particularly the Border Patrol, are viewed as violators of the rights of undocumented Mexicans in the United States. U. S. officials have disputed this characterization.

Despite such criticism, state police plan to continue raids. Chief Encinas said he would like to see similar raids every two weeks or so, to dissuade criminals from frequenting the Tijuana River area.

“We want that place cleaned up,” Encinas said. He shrugged off criticism of working jointly with U.S. authorities, contending that both sides were working for the safety of the undocumented migrants who are preyed upon along the border zone.

Converged on Levee

The operation began at about 7:30 p.m., when state judicial police cars, mostly unmarked, converged on the river levee area from several directions. Dozens of judicial police officers, armed with semi-automatic pistols, mounted the elevated levee and began rounding up everyone in sight--including women and children. Many tried to scurry--some successfully--for the nearby Tijuana neighborhood known as the Zona Norte, across the street from the levee.

Police said all women with children were later released.

Migrants say they have learned to avoid state and local police, who they contend frequently shake down the undocumented border crossers. But Encinas denied that his officers would attempt to extort any migrants, saying all of their belongings would be returned to them.