San Diego Border Patrol officials say during a two-month special operation they arrested almost 5,000 illegal immigrants. The arrests took place in the central section of the border, between the San Ysidro mountains and Campo. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson has details.
Border Patrol officials say they launched the operation to respond to an increase in illegal traffic in the stretch of border between the mountains and Campo. They say the number of people trying to cross in the area swelled after a crackdown in Arizona about a year ago and for other reasons they couldn't specify.
Darryl Griffen is Chief of the Border Patrol in the San Diego Sector. He says when the operation began, the number of arrests in the central section soared 77 percent. However,
Griffen: Ultimately, traffic trends, cross border activity decreased and were deterred to other locations. But as I said in my opening comments, this is only step one.
Griffen plans to extend the operation to other parts the San Diego Mexico border. Griffen says during the last seven months, apprehensions of illegal immigrants along the border in San Diego have decreased 9 percent.
Amy Isackson, KPBS News.
