Speech #990215854

By the hundreds and thousands. aliens emerge from Tijuanas tenements in the late afternoon of every day to await darkness and an illegal rush into the United States. The mesas and canyons are alive with people. mostly men but also a surprising number of women and children. They gather in throngs on U.S. soil that the pitifully outnumbered. overwhelmed border patrol must concede to them in the no mans land. Mr. Pike continues: Last month. more than 70.000 undocumented aliens were apprehended here. This is in the San Diego areaan alltime record that is an astonishing 41percent increase over the figure as recently as last January and 68 percent higher than the arrests in April a year ago. Indeed. illegal aliens caught hereAnd again. I might repeat. this is just in San Diegoaccount for about 40 percent of all such arrests in the United States. The Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates that for every illegal alien apprehended. another one or two or thrr.e n Lke their way into this country. In other words. as many as 200.000 aliens each month ate invading the United States at the San Dir(go border. Mr. Fike contends that many "street thugs" accompany those crossing the border for work. They resist arrest. they shoot the Border Patrol. and some of them rob. rape. and murder in the canyon paths of no mans land. There is no knowing the number of persons who were terrorized and victimized by rampaging bandits until the Border Crime Prevention Unit. composed of San Diego police officers and Border Patrol agents. was organized and deployed in January 1984. The border violence. though reduced. rages on. I visited the hell at our doorstep with Border Patrol officers during a recent afternoon and night of the full Moon. Our first stop in the gathering dusk was on a small knoll just north of the socalled soccer field. where multitudes of aliens were gathered awaiting darkness. It was a bizarre. unbelievable scene. A confrontation between a corporals guard of border patrolmen and an immense army poised to invade this country. Neither side would move until after sunset. There has never been anything like this in the entire history of the United States.