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Friday, March 28, 1997

Aliens turning to smugglers because of beefed-up patrols along border

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Intensified patrols along the Texas border have resulted in a predictable rise in smuggling of undocumented immigrants, authorities said.

"Smuggling is up phenomenally," spokesman Ray Dudley of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in San Antonio said Wednesday.

The region includes Corpus Christi, Laredo, San Angelo and Waco.

INS agents processed 623 undocumented aliens and arrested 76 people for smuggling aliens in fiscal 1996, which ended last September.

In the six months of the new fiscal year, 402 undocumented immigrants have been processed and 41 people have been arrested for smuggling.

Beefed-up patrols along the Texas border come as part of a nationwide push to hire 4,000 new Border Patrol agents and 2,699 other immigration officers between 1996 and 1999.

Alfonso Moreno, supervisory intelligence agent for the U.S. Border Patrol in Laredo, said stepped-up enforcement usually causes immigrants to turn to professionals rather than attempt the trip themselves.

"Some of these smugglers even offer guarantees that if they get caught and sent back to Mexico, they will transport them a second time and make sure they are successfully smuggled into the United States," Moreno said.

"Whether the people can ever find the smugglers after being returned to Mexico is a different story. A lot of folks are taken in by smugglers' scams."

A similar phenomenon was noted in Arizona a few years ago when forces along the border were increased, Dudley added.

Moreno said he also believes there simply are more people coming, especially from Mexico and some Central American countries. "And most of the people we talk to tell us their motive to come here is economic," he said.

It was reported last month that apprehension of undocumented immigrants by the U.S. Border Patrol in the McAllen sector is up 78 percent over 1996 figures.

In January, agents found 306 undocumented immigrants crammed into a tiny Raymondville apartment complex and in the vicinity.

INS agents apprehended a suspected smuggler and 10 Colombians in a vehicle at a San Antonio hotel on Tuesday night.

Authorities said the Colombians had paid $6,000 each at the beginning of the trip and were to pay $3,000 more each when they reached their destinations. They were bound for Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.

Most had traveled 30 days to reach San Antonio, Dudley said.

The apprehensions of the Colombians came a day after INS agents found 57 undocumented immigrants crowded into a small rented truck east of San Antonio in Gonzales County. Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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