Tuesday, July 5, 2005
'Other than Mexican' migrants routinely released
The Associated Press
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HARLINGEN, Texas - Several times a day, a chain-link gate rolls open and dozens of illegal immigrants stroll out of the U.S. Border Patrol station here, blinking into the hot Texas sun as they look for taxis to the bus station and a ticket out of town.
Each holds a piece of paper that Spanish-speakers call a "permiso" - permission, courtesy of the U.S. government, to roam the country freely.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, more than 118,000 illegal immigrants who were caught after sneaking over the nation's borders have walked right out of custody with a permiso in hand.
They were from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil. But also Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen - among 35 countries of "special interest" because of alleged sponsorship or support of terrorism.
These are the so-called OTM, or "Other Than Mexican," migrants too far from their homelands to be shipped right back. More than 70,000 have hit U.S. streets just since this past October.
The Border Patrol is catching them riding inner tubes across the Rio Grande or trekking through farm fields. But the government has no place to put all the "OTMs" while they await deportation hearings, so they are released with a notice to appear in immigration court.
Many don't show - disappearing, instead, among the estimated 10 million illegal immigrants living in America.
In the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2001, 5,251 non-Mexicans were freed on their own recognizance from Border Patrol custody, according to statistics the agency provided. In fiscal year 2002, that rose to 5,725. Fiscal 2003: 7,972. Fiscal 2004: 34,161.
Last year's number included at least 91 illegal immigrants from "special-interest" countries.
Releases have soared again this year. With four months left in the fiscal cycle, 70,624 OTMs have been released on their own recognizance - or 70 percent of all non-Mexicans apprehended by the Border Patrol. That includes 50 illegal immigrants from "special-interest" countries, Border Patrol spokesman Salvador Zamora says.
Authorities stress that apprehended illegal immigrants are routinely screened, and any determined to be a risk are detained. Individuals from "special-interest" nations aren't necessarily more likely to be terrorist threats than others, they note.
Still, front-line officers voice concern that so many who break the law to enter the country are systematically set free.
"I absolutely believe that the next attack we have will come from somebody who has come across the border illegally," says Eugene Davis, retired deputy chief of the Border Patrol sector in Blaine, Wash. "To me, we have no more border security now than we had prior to Sept. 11. Anybody who believes we're safer, they're living in Neverland."
Outside the Harlingen patrol station, an agent grumbled recently that he'd dislocated his shoulder while catching one group - then, in no time, they walked free.
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