Judicial Watch Obtains New Statistics on Human Smuggling in Arizona's 'Tucson Sector' of the Mexican Border

Documents Indicate Sharp Increase in the Number of  Chinese Immigrants Smuggled Across the Border and Apprehended by Border  Patrol

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Judicial Watch, the public interest  group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today  that it has obtained documents from  U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detailing  statistics related to human smuggling in Arizona's "Tucson Sector."  The Tucson Sector is the  Border Patrol's busiest sector on the Southwest Border and covers 262 miles of  linear border. Among the data uncovered by Judicial  Watch:

The documents also include data related to the number of "Other than Mexicans" smuggled and  apprehended by Border Patrol.   According to the documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, the number of  individuals from the People's Republic of  China smuggled  across the border and apprehended increased from 15 in FY2008 to 79 in FY2009,  nearly a five-fold increase.  The New York Times reported on  January 22, 2010, "In fiscal  2009, 332 Chinese immigrants were caught in the Border Patrol's  Tucson sector, up  from 30 the previous year, Border Patrol figures showed.  And in what could be a sign of a  record-breaking pace for this year, agents in the Border Patrol's  Tucson sector  arrested 281 Chinese immigrants from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, the first quarter of the  current fiscal year."   

The  CBP documents  also show significant increases were seen from  Romania and  Dominican  Republic.  The largest  overall volume increase was  Honduras, which  went from 353 in FY2008 to 516 in FY2009.

CBP originally  indicated the agency did not "maintain" statistics related specifically to human  smuggling.  However, in response to  a Judicial Watch appeal, CBP subsequently  notified Judicial Watch that the agency did, in fact, have the ability to create  human smuggling statistical reports from an Immigrations and Custom Enforcement  (ICE) database known as ENFORCE.

Judicial Watch  filed its original FOIA request on January 26,  2010 and appealed  the CBP's contention  that the agency does not maintain human smuggling data on April 23,  2010.  Judicial Watch ultimately received the  requested data on August 19,  2010.

"These statistics show that human smuggling continues to  be a crisis on the nation's southern border.  And the problem is only going to get  worse as a result of the Obama administration's hostility to the strong enforcement of our nation's immigration laws, especially in Arizona," stated  Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

(Visit http://www.judicialwatch.org/story/2009/jun/phoenix-az-drophouse-map to access Judicial Watch's comprehensive map  of human smuggling activity and violence  in the Phoenix metro area.)

SOURCE Judicial Watch