Eye on migrants

Arizona’s experience with the cameras, however, illustrates the squeeze-and-bulge phenomenon of illegal immigration. When the Border Patrol seals parts of the frontier with fences, technology and additional agents, illegal immigration moves elsewhere. The cameras helped produce a dramatic drop in illegal crossings in some towns. But the flow across the state’s border hasn’t slowed. Much of it merely shifted west to the Yuma area, the site President George W Bush chose to highlight his plans to beef up border security and to admit the US did ‘‘not yet have full control of the border.’’ The region is now one of the busiest illegal immigration corridors in the nation.

Five years ago, the busiest border-crossing route in Arizona went through Douglas, a dusty town lying on a high plain in the southeast corner. Day and night, hordes of immigrants jumped the rusty fence and ran into alleys and neighborhoods. ‘‘They even knocked on my door,’’ said Mayor Ray Borane. ‘‘They would want water or want to use the phone.’’ Today, the second-biggest Border Patrol station in the country—housing more than 500 agents—sits on the highway into town, and more than a dozen towers equipped with remote video surveillance cameras rise 60 ft above the streets and surrounding desert.

The number of apprehensions in the area patrolled by the station dropped from 262,000 in 2000 to 71,000 last year. Many agents and local law-enforcement officials credit additional staffing and hi-tech tools, such as remote video surveillance systems. The cameras can keep an eye on miles of border. Equipped with infrared capabilities, they can spot illegal crossers even at night. Thermal imaging outlines their bodies behind bushes and other vegetation. The cameras can zoom in on people climbing mountain trails five miles away.

Operators, often National Guard troops, scan a half-mile stretch of border in seconds using a control stick. A push of a button switches the screen to another stretch of border. The smugglers and immigrants know they are being watched; sometimes they wave and make rude gestures at the cameras. If crossings aren’t noticed by camera operators, motion sensors can alert them.

In San Luis, immigrants scale fences within yards of the official port of entry. They gather by the dozens and rush across at the same time. Some have run across the roof of the US Customs and Border Protection inspection station. Although the Border Patrol installed cameras in the San Luis area a few years ago, they haven’t made a significant difference because there aren’t enough agents to respond to incursions. ‘‘You see 50 to 60 people at a time, day or night, crossing and see one or two Border Patrol agents trying to wrestle them down. They’re outnumbered,’’ said Mayor Nieves Riedel.

Richard Marosi