Local Border Patrol agents catching more career criminals

BY JAMES GILBERT

November 27, 2007 - 9:34AM

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents aren't just catching illegal aliens, they're catching more aliens with long rap sheets. According to Yuma Sector spokesman Andrew Patterson an increase in the number of agents assigned to the sector is enabling the agency to capture more criminals who previously got into the country unnoticed.

"We don't expect it to stop," Patterson said. "We are seeing a lot more of (illegal aliens with criminal records) trying to come across the border and we are catching them."

While having more agents in the field has contributed to catching these foreign-born career criminals, so has having improved technology such as border fencing, day and night cameras, ground-searching radar, sensors, improved field communication and unmanned aerial surveillance systems.

"In the past, we had to pick and choose our battles because we didn't have the manpower to go after a single individual or small group that had a few hours; head start because it left the border open and that was a problem," Patterson said. "We were catching them before, it just wasn't as often."

Nowadays, Patterson said, when agents come across a set of tracks, even ones that are several hours old, the agency has the manpower to follow the footprints without having to pull agents away from patrolling the border.

"Usually after a couple of hours, they have had time to get a prearranged ride or a drop house. Now there is more time spent hiding from agents who are their heels."

Although statistics were not immediately available on Monday, Patterson did say agents know anecdotally that the increase in Border Patrol staffing and resources in the sector has enabled the patrol to catch a larger number of those aliens with criminal records than in the past.