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Along Part of the Border, A Zero-Tolerance Zone
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"We would be processing [paperwork] all day," Mata said.
"Then we'd watch them walk out," Malacara said. "Do all that work, watch them walk out and never see them again."
"Now we're holding them back," Mata said. "It's a drastic change, drastic."
They are, said Randy Clark, the agent in charge of field operations in the Eagle Pass Border Patrol office, "the most dynamic results I've seen in my 19 years in the Border Patrol."
As of June 5, apprehensions of illegal immigrants in Eagle Pass, where Operation Streamline II began Dec. 6, were down 51 percent, and they were down 32 percent in Del Rio, compared with the same period a year ago. Apprehensions of drug smugglers increased substantially between Dec. 6 and June 5, because agents were no longer tied up processing illegal immigrants, Clark said. Since the program began, the value of narcotics seizures has increased 309 percent to $13 million in Eagle Pass and by 176 percent to almost $40 million in Del Rio, he said.
But as with many border enforcement programs, the positive effects are often offset by negative consequences. "It's plugging one hole here and creating holes somewhere else," said one federal official who asked not to be identified because he is involved in enforcing the program. "If it's only done right here, everybody might go elsewhere."
That appears to be happening. While border crossings are down in Del Rio and Eagle Pass, Border Patrol spokeswoman Maria Valencia said apprehensions between Oct. 1 and Wednesday increased by 9 percent in Laredo, the neighboring sector. Apprehensions for the same period increased by 24 percent in the San Diego and El Centro, Calif., sectors and by 20 percent in El Paso. "Everything has shifted over," she said.
For now, Eagle Pass is quiet, a far cry from the days last fall when groups of 20, 30 and 40 illegal immigrants, most of them from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, could be seen walking through the tiny downtown.
"We were getting overwhelmed," said Eagle Pass Police Chief Tony Castañeda. "Fortunately, we didn't have a crime wave with these people. They just wanted their [court appearance] papers, to get money wired here from their families up north and to get on a bus out of town. They came into the police station asking for their papers. It was crazy, man."
