Border Patrol Arrests of Illegal Aliens Near Record

SAN DIEGO — U.S. Border Patrol agents in San Diego arrested nearly 250,000 undocumented immigrants during the first six months of this fiscal year--a number close to the record levels five years ago that prompted legislation to reduce illegal entries.

Federal authorities said the number of arrests--which have been increasing for more than two years--offers the strongest indicator that illegal immigration from Mexico continues to rise. Officials attributed the increase to the lack of opportunity south of the border and the comparatively high wages offered in the United States.

“We’ve still got that negative economic situation in Mexico,” said Gustavo De La Vina, chief Border Patrol agent in San Diego, where a 12-mile strip of international frontier is considered the most concentrated illicit crossing zone along the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico boundary.

San Diego-based Border Patrol agents are making about 1,830 arrests daily of unauthorized immigrants, mostly after dark. While those numbers include multiple offenders, officials have estimated that agents catch only one of three people who enter the United States in that area.

The Border Patrol’s 242,000 arrests in the San Diego area during the first half of fiscal 1991 (Oct. 1, 1990 to March 31, 1991) represent a 12.3% increase compared to the same period during 1989-90.

That number is the second-highest ever, officials said, after the record of nearly 271,000 arrested during the first six months of fiscal 1986.

BORDER ARRESTS

Arrests by U.S. Border Patrol agents based in San Diego: All figures are for the first six months of the fiscal years (Oct. 1-March 31).

Fiscal 1991: 242,412

Fiscal 1990: 215,860

Fiscal 1989: 141,611

Fiscal 1988: 237,109

Fiscal 1987: 239,782

Fiscal 1986: 270,926

NOTE: San Diego-based agents patrol all of San Diego County and parts of southern Orange and Riverside counties.