Texas Expands Arrests of Illegal Immigrants Crossing Border

U.S. Border Agents are arresting more illegal immigrants who cross the Texas border illegally. Starting last Wednesday, they are arresting illegal immigrants who cross the border near Laredo, Texas.

“This is the chief’s view of the future. We’re talking national,” said Ramon Rivera, Border Patrol spokesman. “It sends a strong message that we’re not letting illegal border crossers have a free ride.”

The program began in 2005 near the Del Rio area, which is a 210-mile stretch along the middle of the southern Texas border. The program then expanded to western Arizona last year. Instead of picking up illegal immigrants on the border and deporting them back to Mexico, only to find them back in a few weeks or months, the U.S. Border Patrol wants to teach them a lesson in hopes they will never cross the border illegally again. Immigrants who came into this country illegally and were natives of a country other than Mexico, were often just given a court date which they didn’t show up for.

U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Ramon Rivera said there has been a 46 percent reduction in border apprehensions in the Del Rio area since the zero-tolerance policy went into effect. The number of arrests in western Arizona decreased nearly 70 percent after immigration and federal prosecutors began locking up illegal immigrants last year.

Nearly everyone who is caught in the Yuma area is prosecuted. The Yuma sector includes 125 miles of western Arizona and a little of eastern California. Of course, exceptions are made for pregnant women and families with children that would be separated if the parents were jailed. There is a term for this, which we won’t mention today, that involves illegals getting pregnant just so they can stay here. There is no law that allows for illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. should they have a child while crossing the border or after they have lived here, but the federal government is encouraging the practice by not addressing this specific problem.

Bottom line, whether or not you agree with tax dollars paying for illegal immigrants to live in jail, is that the threat of jail time for illegal immigrants is decreasing the amount who try to cross the border. That’s a good thing.