Controlled leaks

Trudging through a thick brush of shrubs and matted cane, U.S. Border Patrol agent Manuel Olivas can see at least one advantage to a planned stretch of border fence expected to cross through this area.

“Clearing out all of these trees for construction will make an impact,” he said. “We should be able to see more clearly.”

But Olivas is less certain about whether the 370-miles of barrier the Department of Homeland Security plans to build across the nation’s southern border will significantly hinder Mexican nationals from crossing into the country illegally.

“They just jump around from place to place,” he said. “If we stop a group in one area, they will just move to another.”

Since documents indicating potential sites for the proposed fence leaked in April, the plan’s detractors have voiced a variety of concerns from the wall’s environmental impact to the economic problems a border barrier could produce.

But supporters and objectors can agree on one thing: A fence alone won’t provide a permanent solution.

Immigrant advocates fear barriers in urban areas could push migration routes to more severe and desolate landscape and increase reliance on often dangerous human smuggling rings.

Even so, supporters argue a fence would be just one piece in an overall border security policy and not meant to solve the problem on its own.

“The fence is just part of a larger strategy,” said Xavier Rios, a Washington D.C.-based spokesman for the Border Patrol. “Fencing and technology is not effective without our agents to make the arrest.”

Currently, 85 miles of fencing stretch along small patches of borderland in California, New Mexico and Arizona. They hardly compare to the 700-mile barrier outlined in the 2006’s Secure Fence Act, but their effectiveness offers one of the few models against which local leaders can gauge their expectations.

Almost immediately after the construction of a triple-layered fence in San Diego, Border Patrol agents saw daily signs of attempts to cut, climb or otherwise compromise it. But just as quickly, the wall provided results, Rios said.

“Almost overnight, it reduced illegal immigration by almost 90 percent,” he said.

THE BALLOON EFFECT

The fence temporarily eased Southern California’s immigration problem, but it didn’t solve it, Rios said.

Illegal immigration, according to one of his agency’s more popular maxims, works like a balloon — squeeze it off in one area and all the air will go somewhere else.

Attempts to crack down on illegal crossing in the late ’90s, including fencing and manpower surges in San Diego, El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley forced migrants from the Southwest’s urban centers to remote border towns like Nogales, Ariz., and Sunland Park, N.M.

Immigrant deaths reported in Arizona’s brutal desert increased every year. Now, each summer brings thousands of new bodies of men and women, who died in their determination to make it across.

“They’re going to go where they can easily find a way across,” Rios said. “We know that and we provide added enforcement for those remote areas.”

The agency has responded by setting up several remote stations in the Southwestern desert, creating its own search and rescue operation and partnering with Mexican aid organizations to warn potential border crossers of the dangers they could face.

Still, the Rev. Robin Hunter deals with the hundreds that slip through that safety net on a daily basis.

Noting the alarming rise of migrant deaths in his region, the former Los Fresnos resident founded the Tucson-based nonprofit group Humane Borders in the late ’90s.

His organization helps thousands of migrants each year by posting water stations in the desert, offering humanitarian aid on the Mexican side of the border and warning potential crossers what dangers they could face.

Although he admires the work of the Border Patrol’s search and rescue agents, he believes they can’t do enough to fix a problem they created themselves.

“There’s an absolute correlation,” he said, referring to the decreasing rate of detainments in Southern California and Texas and the rise of migrant deaths in Arizona. “We have not successfully reduced the number of people crossing by one.”

He fears the deceptively calm-looking waters of the Rio Grande and barren ranchland of South Texas could pose their own unique hazards as immigrants are forced from areas around the proposed fence.

That’s why Hunter believes his organization will always have a purpose, despite critics who argue he’s aiding illegal activity.

“If you’re worried about water stations in the desert, you’ll also have to turn off all the lights in Miami because it might help Haitians navigate their way here,” he said. “It’s an absurd argument.”

TRIAGE

Of course, the immigrants willingly take on the added risk, supporters of the fence plan argue. And at some point efforts to frustrate illegal border crossers — including increased technology, more agents on the ground, and the potential for a physical barrier to cross — will provide more trouble for them than it’s worth.

“The fencing doesn’t stop people from coming in, but it may slow them down long enough for us to make an arrest,” Rios said.

So far, the Border Patrol has had success in attacking the border with a triage system. Extended efforts to reduce illegal crossings in urban areas have shown results, Rios said.

Eventually, the agency will deploy similar strategies to the rural areas. And with 6,000 new recruits expected to join the Border Patrol by 2008, Rios believes the odds are eventually on their side.

But as any gambler can attest, you’re bound to come out ahead sometimes. And in the immigration game, one successful crossing is often all it takes.

It’s a truism that agents like Olivas have learned to deal with. As he gazed across a thin stretch of the Rio Grande on a hot afternoon, Olivas finally spotted what he came for.

“Look over there,” he said, pointing to a person idling in a patch of brush on the river’s Mexican banks. The dark-skinned man stared back at the agent — both waiting the other out.

He could be a scout for a coyote, Olivas said. He could be a lone crosser. Or he could just be a Mexican national enjoying the banks of his country’s northern border.

But Olivas knows one thing for certain.

“If he really wants to cross,” he said. “He’s going to get across. He’ll eventually figure out a way.”

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Jeremy Roebuck covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437. For this and more local stories, visit www.themonitor.com.