US Mexico Border Fence and Patrol Operations

US Mexico Illegal Immigration Border Fence & Border Patrol

Controlling our borders has not always been as great a problem as it is today. In 1965, the number of aliens apprehended by the Border Patrol coming across the border was 110,000. Now that number is more than one million annually. Data for recent years indicate that most of the apprehensions by the Border Patrol are along the U.S. Mexico border fence.

A similar share of the apprehensions (about 95%) end up in "voluntary departure" procedures. This means that the alien is given the option of leaving the United States voluntarily rather than be deported. For the great bulk of the cases, that means transporting the alien to the U.S. Mexico border fence and turning them over to the Mexican authorities.

Below we provide apprehension data since fiscal year 1961. In using this data there are important facts to keep in mind. The number of apprehensions is not the number of people who entered the country illegally. The reason for that is that an individual, if apprehended and allowed to depart, will repeat the attempt to enter illegally until successful. That means that one person may end up in the statistics more than once. Until recently, the Border Patrol had no means of identifying repeat offenders, because illegal border crossers were not even fingerprinted. That has now changed with the implementation of electronic fingerprinting in the IDENT system.

On the other hand, the number of apprehensions understates the amount of illegal entry because the Border Patrol does not succeed in apprehending all illegal border crossers. A rule of thumb used by the Border Patrol earlier was that two or three illegal aliens got past the Border Patrol for each one caught. This may be changing now because of major increases in Border Patrol personnel strength and new equipment that offer more effective detection of border intruders. Nevertheless, large numbers of illegal aliens continue to be attracted by the prospect of easily getting work in the United States and do not appear to be significantly deterred by a greater likelihood of apprehension.

In the apprehension data, a significant increase appears to begin in 1965. That coincides with the end of the bracero program, which allowed large numbers of Mexican guest workers to come into the United States legally as agricultural workers. Experts see the experience among unskilled Mexicans working in the United States in that program as fuel for later large-scale illegal entry. The data after 1989 register a decline in apprehensions. This period coincides with implementation of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act provision of employer sanctions against employers who hired illegal aliens. It appears that fears about not finding jobs because of the new sanctions deterred illegal entry. However, the decrease was temporary, and by FY'90 apprehensions had resumed their upward trend. This could be related to the discovery that employer sanctions could be easily evaded by showing an employer fake documents to meet the identification requirements of the law.

Recent Changes

In 1993, the U.S.-Mexican border was truly porous especially in populated border crossing points because of a lack of resources and low policy priority given to border management. Then, the Border Patrol District Chief in El Paso, Silvestre Reyes (now member of the U.S. Congress), launched Operation Blockade, a surprise initiative of intensive patrolling of the border around the clock. The operation, later dubbed Operation Hold-the-Line was dramatically successful and popular in El Paso, where about three-quarters of the population is Hispanic. Washington politicians and bureaucrats suddenly realized that border control efforts were woefully inadequate.

As a result of the experience in El Paso, similar operations have been undertaken in San Diego and other cities along the U.S.-Mexican border. At the same time Congress was sensitized to the public outcry over illegal immigration by the Proposition-187 taxpayer initiative in California. Congress became engaged in a major strengthening of the Border Patrol. As of August 1997, the INS could boast that "Since Fiscal Year (FY) 1994, the Border Patrol has grown by 63 percent, from 4,226 to more than 6,900 agents by the end of Fiscal Year 1997." That campaign to put increased personnel and more sophisticated equipment in border operations is continuing.

On the local level, recent Border Patrol apprehension data point to some significant successes in deterring illegal entry. However, overall there is far less room for optimism. Apprehensions have risen in areas where previously few Mexicans illegal aliens and others tried to cross. The INS border management strategy includes gradually expanding its enhanced detection and control capability to outlying areas. To date, this effort has demonstrated that border enforcement can be done much better than previously, but also that border control by itself will be either ineffective or prohibitively expensive unless we reduce the incentive for aliens to attempt illegal entry. The drop in apprehensions after the adoption of employers sanctions in 1986 suggests that by correcting the fundamental flaw in that system -- requiring that identification be verifiable, coupled with greater efforts at interior enforcement -- could significantly reduce illegal alien border crossings.

INS APPREHENSION DATA -- FY'61 to FY'96

* 1976 data include 15 months when the fiscal year end was moved to Sept.30.

Updated 3/98