Report: Incursions demonstrate 'dangerous, chaotic' situation

Yuma officials say they are actually declining

BY DARIN FENGER, SUN STAFF WRITER

January 15, 2008 - 11:47PM

The frequency of police and military personnel from Mexico crossing into the U.S. demonstrates a "dangerous and chaotic" situation, says a government watchdog group that recently released a report on trends.

U.S. Border Patrol officials insist that such incursions actually do not amount to a serious problem and are actually on the decline, according to Agent Andrew Patterson, a Border Patrol spokesman in Yuma.

That report by Washington, D.C.-based Judicial Watch says that 253 crossings or incursions by Mexican authorities were confirmed between 1996 and Sept. 30, 2006.

The Yuma area saw 35 of those incursions.

Judicial Watch compiled its report based on previously unreleased records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

"These documents not only show the dangerous and chaotic situation at the border," said the group's president, Tom Fitton, in a news statement, "but also the complicity of some Mexican government agents in violating U.S. law. The U.S. government must begin to take these incidents more seriously, publicize them and take measures to bring the crisis at our border under control."