Massive influx
By Jonathan Clark
After nearly two years of declining numbers, illegal border-crossings took a sudden jump last month in Cochise County, law enforcement officials say.
Gustavo Soto, a spokesman for the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, said agents at the Naco, Douglas and Willcox stations apprehended just over 13,000 illegal immigrants last month, a 30 percent increase over March 2006. Prior to the spike, Border Patrol apprehensions in the county had been down 13 percent since the current fiscal year began on Oct. 1. That decline followed a 45 percent drop during the previous year.
Sgt. Taron Maddux, spokesman for the Bisbee Police Department, also noted a recent spike in local border crossings.
“From January 1 up until about three weeks ago, we had apprehended a total of maybe 100 to 150 (illegal immigrants),” Maddux said. “And then, in a two-week period, we apprehended something like 255.”Soto, who wasn’t sure if the short-term local change will prove to be statistically significant, didn’t speculate as to its causes. He pointed out that the 3,000-person increase last month is still a relatively small number compared to the 1,500 border-crossers who are arrested on a typical night in the Tucson Sector.
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