Speech #1090054489

Brazilians. Chinese. Pakistanis and many others are joining the tide of Mexicans who sneak across every day. "OTMs include people from all over the worldSouth America. the Middle East. the Caribbean." explained former Immigration and Naturalization Service Special Agent Michael W. Cutler. currently a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. "Anyone other than Mexican is an OTM." In 2001 5.251 "OTMs" were caught crossing over from Mexico. Last year the number was more than 35.000. In the first eight months of this fiscal year. its up to 70.000 already230 people a dayand theyre only the ones getting caught. "The vulnerability of a porous border Is a security problem. and we always have to be concerned the real bad guys will exploit these vulnerabilities." said Frank Sharry. executive director of the National Immigration Forum. Critics are concerned at the way OTMs are handled. Mexicans are processed and sent back across the border within a few hours but Mexico wont allow the United States to send them citizens from other countriesand under U.S. law theyre entitled to a deportation hearing. Because the immigration service lacks prison beds to hold them. the vast majority of OTMs are released from custody and asked to voluntarily return for their court datewhich the majority of them obviously do not do. "They are given a piece of paper called a notice to appear. which administratively starts the ball rolling for a deportation hearing." said Cutler. "Not surprisingly. fewer than 15 percent show up. "Our bureaucracy is not up to the challenge of protecting this country. our Congress is not dealing with the reality in a 21st Century way. our immigration laws are terribly out of place." commented Sharry. So whats the answer? While some say more legal immigration is needed. others want the borders effectively closed. Both sides seem to agree that giving illegal immigrants a free pass is no solution at all. I read from another article. "Loophole to America": In the silveryblue light of dusk. 20 Brazilians glided across the Rio Grande in rubber rafts propelled by Mexican smugglers who leaned forward and breaststroked through the gentle current. Once on the U.S. side. the Brazilians scrambled ashore and started looking for the Border Patrol. Their quick and wellrehearsed surrender was part of a growing trend that is demoralizing the Border Patrol and beckoning a rising number of illegal immigrants from countries beyond Mexico. "We used to chase them. now theyre chasing us." Border Patrol Agent Gus Balderas said as he frisked the Brazilians and collected their passports late last month. What happened next explains the odd reversal. The group was detained overnight and given a court summons that allowed them to stay in the United States pending an immigration hearing. Then a Border Patrol agent drove them to the McAllen bus station. where they continued their journey into America. The formal term for the court summons is a "notice to appear." Border Patrol agents have another name for it. They call it a "notice to disappear." Of the 8.908 notices to appear that the Immigration court in nearby Harlingen issued last year to nonMexicans. 8.767 failed to show up for their hearings. according to statistics compiled by the Justice Departments Executive Office of Immigration Review. That is a noshow rate of 98 percent. The problem is that U.S. immigration authorities are short on detention space. They can send Mexicans back across the border within hours. But international law prohibits them from sending nonMexicans to Mexico. Instead. they must arrange travel documents and flights directly to the immigrants country of origin. The process. which the U.S. government pays for. takes weeks or even months. The result is an unintended avenue of entry for a rapidly growing class of illegal immigrants from Central and South America who now see the Border Patrol more as a welcome wagon than a barrier. It is one example of the tears in the "seamless web of enforcement" that immigration authorities vowed to establish along the U.S.-Mexico border during the 1990s. when they spent billions of dollars on strategically placed lights. sensors. roads. fences and agents. It also helps explain why the nations illegal immigrant population has grown to record levels despite the buildup. The morning after Agent Balderas encountered the 20 Brazilians. another Border Patrol agent drove them to the McAllen bus station where they headed toward their destinations. They were armed with notices to appear that carried them safely past Border Patrol checkpoints. Two days later. Graice De OlveiraSilva and three companions from Brazil were working for her relatives housecleaning business in Atlanta. It Is a world turned upside down for the Border Patrol. especially here in South Texas. Back in 1985. things were so different that a woman was convicted on charges that she drove illegal immigrants from El Salvador around the Border Patrol and to the same McAllen bus station. Now smugglers operate with impunity. After their loads of immigrants splash ashore. the smugglers slip back across the river. As word of this border loophole filters back to Central and South America. the volume of people coming to exploit it is likely to grow. according to Border Patrol agents. A Guatemalan arrested late last month in the McAllen sector who gave his name as Hugo said that when word gets back home. "Anyone who has a little money will be coming." Mr. President.