Aliens hiding in plain sight

Part one of three

SALINAS, Calif. — For years, Carlos lived in fear as he migrated from one farm to another, pursuing the cash that the picking of seasonal fruits and vegetables provided here in the fertile Salinas Valley. But as time passed, so did his anxiety.

“We were always watching out for the Border Patrol, and we were always afraid,” said the 34-year-old Mexican national, chopping lettuce with 20 others. “But not anymore. We’re out here everyday, and nobody ever bothers us.”

Carlos, who came to America in 1996, is one of the estimated 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens living and working in the United States, who have no real fear of ever being detained or deported. And there’s a good reason: No one’s looking for them.

“If they can get by us — and a lot of them do — they know they can go underground, find a job and disappear — particularly in the several cities and towns across the country that have large Hispanic populations,” said a veteran Border Patrol supervisor in Arizona.

“We get one chance at them, and if they elude us, they’re gone.”

A monthlong investigation by The Washington Times, which included interviews with immigration-enforcement officers from Washington state, California, Arizona, Texas and Florida, found that the vast majority of illegal aliens flooding into America — an estimated 1 million a year — draw little attention once they pass through the “border region,” which extends about 60 miles into the United States.

A total of 2,300 federal agents are assigned the task of detecting, detaining and deporting the millions of foreign nationals illegally in this country, who — besides draining billions of taxpayer dollars a year — pose a potential terrorist risk in the post-September 11 world.

Nearly half of the 48 al Qaeda terrorists tied to violent acts in the United States between 1993 and 2001 committed significant immigration-law violations prior to those events but were never detained or deported, federal records show.

“Strict enforcement of immigration law … is one of the most effective means we have of reducing the threat from foreign-born terrorists,” said Steven A. Camarota, director of research at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies.

Taxpayers each year spend more than $7 billion to educate the children of illegal aliens, $1 billion for health care and emergency treatment, and nearly $3 billion to detain illegal aliens in state and local jails, according to congressional reports and studies by immigration groups and several universities.

“Despite those costs, the country’s interior-enforcement program historically has been neglected and understaffed,” said Michael W. Cutler, a retired U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) senior agent who spent most of his 31-year career as a criminal investigator and intelligence specialist.

“Interior enforcement” is the term used to describe the routine enforcement of U.S. immigration law away from the nation’s borders. It traditionally has included the apprehension of all illegal aliens, inspections for illegal employees at U.S. work sitesand sanctions against employers who hire illegals.

“Even now, with as many as 12 million illegal immigrants in the country and a public clamoring for better immigration enforcement, the government has committed far too few agents to the task,” Mr. Cutler said. “We have only been given the illusion of making a serious effort to enforce our immigration law.”

Do the math: If the current roster of 2,300 agents dedicated to pursuing illegal aliens now in the country arrests 500 persons a day, an unattainable goal at current resource levels, it would take from 44 to 66 years to reduce the estimated 8 million to 12 million figure to zero — assuming, of course, that no new illegals enter the United States between now and 2070.

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