Jake Wilson

Final Project

For my final project I decided to take a deeper look at the border patrol’s new tactic otherwise known as the balloon effect. In an effort to better understand what’s its effect has been and more specifically what it has done to the Arizona, New Mexico region. In closure, I will tackle what is good and bad about this strategy and what could be done to better defend the border and stop illegal crossings?

Prior to this trip I was under the impression that for the most part California and Texas, and even more specifically Juarez and Tijuana, were where most of the illegal action was taking place. However, it did not take me long to realize that this was most certainly not the case. “The Clinton administration was to concentrate the new resources it was providing for border control along a small number of relatively short segments of the border- the corridors that traditionally had been most heavily used by would-be illegal entrants” (Cornelius, 661). As this states starting with the Clinton administration not only did America begin to spend more on border patrol but they also began trying to tighten up at the areas where most of the illegal activity was occurring. These areas were Texas and California. Thus, since this new border policy went into effect Arizona and New Mexico have become increasingly hotter as far as illegal crossings of people and drugs are concerned. This has been labeled the balloon effect because Texas and California have forced all the activity into Arizona.

To continue, this new tactic has had some serious implications as far as the border region is concerned. For starters, it has changed the face of Texas and California quite a bit. In California the amount of illegal immigrants apprehended in 1994 were 477,806 people however in 2000 the illegal immigrants apprehended were 389,807 people (Cornelius, 665). In Texas 340,611 illegal immigrants were apprehended in 1994 and 528,779 illegal immigrants were apprehended in 2000 (Cornelius, 665). Now Texas does show an increase in illegal immigrants; however, since 1997 when the amount of illegal immigrants’ apprehensions was at 636,034 there has been a decline in illegal immigrant apprehensions (Cornelius, 665). Obviously this strategy, first implemented in the Clinton Administration, has done what it said it would, and that is to control what were the worst areas, those being Texas and California. Continuing on, I did not have to rely on statistics from a book to see this, as I was able to see first hand that this was the case. To begin with, we were able to meet with border patrol agents in the McAllen and El Paso region. Both of these sectors assured us that there has been a pretty serious decrease in illegal traffic in their areas, what’s more is that they even said the real hot spot was Arizona. Also, we got to see the tremendous amount of border patrol agents stationed in the city of El Paso easily catching almost everybody trying to make their way across. Not to mention the fact that we got to see the dogs which work at the checkpoints, and it was there we learned just how incredible the dogs were. After all there is almost no way to trick them, thus trying to take illegal drugs or people across at the checkpoints has dropped off quite a bit. Unfortunately we were not able to meet with any border patrol stations in California, but we were assured that they have seen the same kind of results that Texas has.

The success that Texas and California have seen is a bit misleading because it has not meant a real serious decline in the total amount of illegal immigrants and drugs crossing the entirety of the Mexican-American border. The table that I have included below shows this fact, also it should be noted this is the amount of illegal aliens making it into the United States if we listen to the border patrol, which claims to catch one out of every four illegal aliens trying to cross into America. So if the numbers are going down

Table I Basic calculations: summary of numbers of illegals entering and evading apprehension yearly.  (http://www.desertinvasion.us/data/invasion_numbers.html#illegalsentering) (millions of illegal aliens per year)
Apprehension rate	2001	2002	2004
1 out of 4 (per Border Patrol)	5.0	2.9	5.3

in Texas and California but yet the total number of people getting in has stayed about the same; then, obvious the area of most crossings must be the New Mexico-Arizona area. In Arizona there were 160,684 illegal immigrant apprehensions in 1994 and a stunning 725,093 illegal immigrant apprehensions in 2000 (Cornelius, 665). Arizona has now been completely flooded with all the activity that once went through Texas and Arizona. This was easily apparent the very second we saw the first border city in Arizona. The city is called Douglas and the first and most noticeable thing in Douglas is the huge wall and spotlights which separates it from Mexico. This was the case in Nogales as well and both these places had the feel of war zones and in a way they have become that, thanks to the fact that illegal immigrants and drugs have no other place to come across. The real estate man we talked to discussed how the real estate price was so low, and one of the reasons it was so low is because nightly as he put it there are people (illegal immigrants) walking through your backyard. Of course all this movement into Arizona has caused for more resources therefore “the agency will soon spend another $10 million to add 260 agents, unmanned aircraft and more detention space in Arizona” (http://www.talkleft.com/new_archives/005695.html). Sasabe a small town in Mexico just across the border from Sasabe, Arizona is a great example of what has happened to Arizona. Sasabe is out in the middle of nowhere. As we went through the town we began to see all the new growth the city has made, and as well we began to notice that there were quite a few nice cars, a lot more nice cars than one would think they would see in North Mexican desert. It became apparent to us that this town has begun to boom because of drugs. It is not only people that have had to move into Arizona, but drugs as well and therefore a town in the middle of nowhere in Arizona is on the rise because drugs need to get across somewhere. All of this illegal activity was not originally expected, the hope when the so called balloon effect came into use was that the aliens would be deterred by the fact that they could not get into Texas or California, and the mountain and desert terrain was to challenging. However, this has not happened, instead of the illegal immigrant being deterred, they are instead risking their lives to get across the harsh Arizona and New Mexico terrain. Due to this fact the deaths of illegal immigrants continues to move upward. “As a record number of immigrants tried crossing through Arizona, the Border Patrol increased the number of agents by 666 percent, and the death count rapidly climbed. In 1998, Border Patrol agents in Arizona recorded 28 deaths in the Yuma and Tucson sectors. Last year, the agency counted more than 150, though an independent count by The Arizona Republic came up with 205” (http://www.talkleft.com/new_archives/005695.html). This quote really shows that as we add more agents they are finding more and more bodies, which would otherwise decompose in the desert, as I am sure most of them use to. In addition, this uncovers the real problem with this border strategy. That being people are not being deterred by the desert, but rather they are just dying more in their attempts to cross the border. Also there is truly no way to stop all the drugs coming over the border. Even if we somehow busted all the big cartel people in Mexico more would be ready to step up and fill the role. As I learned from the Narcocorrido book, the high up drug traffickers are looked at as famous and almost heroic, and certainly drug trafficking is one of the only ways to be successful. Furthermore, they get the chance to fight against America, thus there will always be people ready to smuggle drugs into America.

Obviously, there are some serious issues developing in Arizona and New Mexico and the next question has to be what is being done to remedy the situation. As I have already stated the amount of agents is increasing in the area and this has helped capture more illegal immigrants before many of them succumb to heat exhaustion, but it has also just allowed for the retrieval of more dead bodies. When we talked with the border bike patrol in Nogales it struck me as quite funny when one of the men said that their job is more of a search and rescue than anything else. I guess sadly that is a true statement. The newest thing is an elite force of border patrol agents, called BORTAC these are the new elite border patrol officers who are being put mainly into the Arizona region and they have had reasonable good success. “In 120 days, a 30-man BORTAC team caught 8,331 illegal immigrants. That represents more than 20 percent of illegal immigrant arrests in the west desert during that same period, according to statistics from the Tucson sector. The west desert, which encompasses 121 miles of border from the Yuma County line to near Sasabe, is expected to be the focus of increased enforcement again this year” (http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=030804a1_bortac_main&PHPSESSID=eef0325a460aed84626f7a3b7a16280c). Clearly, this is one of the new tactics that is being used to try and control the Arizona sector and it has had some good success, however there is just too much land to cover to feasibly shut down this sector. Thanks to the fact that immigrants continue to make it through Arizona people have tried to make money as vigilantes for hire. The Malpai group we visited with told us about this. Wendy explained to us that two gentlemen had come trying to offer her vigilante security. While she did not except his offer there is no doubt that others might have and this could give rise to vigilantes killing illegal immigrants as if the harsh environment does not do enough. New technology as well is being used to try and deal with the Arizona region, “Two Hermes 450 drones, which were launched over Arizona on June 25, use thermal and night-vision equipment to spot illegal immigrants trying to cross the desert into the United States. They can detect movement from 15 miles up, read a license plate, view a vehicle's occupants and even detect weapons” (http://www.survivalforum.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=10125).

Overall, this strategy of trying to use the Arizona-New Mexico environment as the final deterrent to seal off the border has had its ups and downs. First of all it really is the best way to try and keep people from crossing, by making them cross at the hardest possible area. However, it has not had the success it had hoped for, instead the numbers crossing into America have declined only slightly, and the amount of deaths continues to skyrocket. Therefore something needs to be done. If America wants to rid itself of illegal immigrants it needs to take away their reason for coming. That reason is the amount of money these illegal immigrants can make here in the United States compared to Mexico. It has become apparent that no physical deterrent will stop the will that these Mexicans have to provide a better life for their families. Thus, there are two ways to truly fix this messed up situation Arizona is getting the brunt of. One would be to punish the companies hiring these illegal immigrants, this would take away the demand for illegal immigrant work and therefore the illegal immigrants would stop coming if they were not getting work. Another way to eliminate the amount of illegal aliens coming across would be to raise the wages in Mexico so that they would have no need to make the perilous journey. However, neither of these two options is anywhere close to being considered. What’s more is that the border patrol has way more agents than ICE (which deals with busting businesses that hire illegal immigrants). Throughout the trip I began to realize the fact that no real solution to the problem that has begun in Arizona is in sight. Therefore, Arizona will stay a war zone, and no matter the amount of agents stationed along the border immigrants will continue to flood in and the desert will continue to kill illegal immigrants.