INS Program to Add Agents, Equipment Along Border

Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner on Friday announced the second phase of the Clinton Administration’s much-heralded Operation Gatekeeper to thwart illegal immigration and score political points in a state where illegal immigration is a major issue.

Amid the roar of traffic at the San Ysidro border crossing, Meissner announced that 45 more agents and 25 more inspectors will be assigned along the border. She also said that a crackdown on phony documents is under way, new sensors and other equipment will be used, and redoubled efforts will be made to catch and prosecute smugglers.

For eight months, the INS has deployed additional agents to stop illegal immigrants from crossing into the United States through the heavily traveled routes west of San Ysidro. Not surprisingly, immigrants and smugglers have moved eastward, and now the INS is responding.

“We are going to strengthen our front line of resistance against illegal immigration at the ports of entry, at the checkpoints, in East [San Diego] County, and where smugglers are attempting to profit from the border,” Meissner said.

The new agents will be deployed in the mountainous region near Campo and Dulzura, where residents have been dismayed to see illegal immigrants moving through their property since Operation Gatekeeper began. A new checkpoint has also been established along Highway 94 in that area.

Meissner’s announcement brought praise from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based group that has called for tighter enforcement of immigration laws.

“We’re rather pleased at what we’ve heard,” said spokesman Jim Dorcy. “We’ve thought that Gatekeeper was the correct approach to take but was too limited. This sounds like it will be much more effective, if they stick with it.”

But Roberto Lovato, executive director of the Central America Resource Center in Los Angeles, called Meissner’s announcement “just a lot of money that will be wasted.”

“These measures [like Gatekeeper] contribute to a limited reduction in people coming across,” Lovato said. “People will find new ways to get through holes in the fence and around the barriers along this 1,000-mile border.”

Lovato said that if the government was serious about stopping illegal immigration, it would be more aggressive in finding and prosecuting employers “who draw people here in the first place.”

He added: “I don’t think this is about getting tough [on illegal immigration]. This is about getting reelected.”

One move announced by Meissner--keeping in operation the San Clemente checkpoint along Interstate 5 and the Temecula checkpoint along I-15--ran into opposition from the Republican congressman whose sprawling district includes the two checkpoints.

Rep. Ron Packard of Oceanside said he still supports closing the two stations and transferring the agents to the border. His constituents in northern San Diego County contend that the checkpoints only block illegal immigrants from going to Los Angeles and thus encourage them to live in the canyons and fields of coastal and inland cities, where Border Patrol agents rarely venture.

“If the border does not stop people from crossing illegally, then let’s use our scarce resources to shore it up to the point where the border does the job it is intended to do,” Packard said.

Meissner and other officials said one advantage to having the checkpoints is to force illegal immigrants into using “drop houses” while they wait to continue the trek to Los Angeles.

So far, 53 drop houses have been raided, 2,500 migrants apprehended and 69 smugglers arrested as part of Operation Gatekeeper, officials said.

Border Patrol officials reported that Gatekeeper has driven up the price that smugglers charge illegal immigrants to guide them across the border, from $300 to $700 and higher, because the journey is more arduous and less predictable.

Meissner said that steps will be taken to make sure that the wait at the San Clemente checkpoint is never longer than 15 minutes. This will be done, she said, by possibly using four lanes rather than two.