WASHINGTON – Police seizures of drop houses, where smugglers “stash” undocumented aliens en route to other parts of the country, have plummeted in Arizona this year, continuing a trend that began in 2008.
Through July 17, the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s Illegal Immigration Prevention and Apprehension Co-Op Teams (IIMPACT) reported seizing only one drop house. That compares to 18 last year and 49 in 2008, a year after the task force began operation.
While not as steep as the IIMPACT drop, federal officials also reported a decline in drop houses uncovered in the Phoenix area.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it had found 30 drop houses in the area by June 27. That would put it on pace for about 40 by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, compared to 51 in fiscal 2011 and 186 in 2008.
Authorities say tougher enforcement has pushed “coyotes” – smugglers who bring undocumented aliens into the country – into passing through Arizona toward other states.
“We made it hard for them to operate,” said Bart Graves, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Others say that while increased policing has played a role, there are other factors involved, including everything from a stagnant U.S. economy to higher prices charged by coyotes.
“There are a number of indications in the data we have that fewer people are trying to cross the border into the U.S.,” said Jeffrey Passel, a demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center. That translates into fewer undocumented workers who are trying to sneak in, he said.
Authorities say coyotes use drop houses as stopping points on this side of the border while they transport undocumented aliens farther into the country. The houses are also sometimes places where the smugglers hold illegal immigrants hostage to extort more money from them, police said.
An ICE official attributed the decline in the number of drop houses uncovered to “the unprecedented resources it (ICE) has deployed to the Southwest border.” The success was also attributed to expanded partnerships with federal, state, tribal and local partners, and help from the government of Mexico.
ICE is part of the IIMPACT team with state police.
The decrease in drop houses comes as apprehensions of illegal immigrants have also dropped precipitously. Pew attributes that drop both to the collapse of the U.S. housing market, and the construction jobs that came with it, and to the increased law enforcement presence on the border.
“In spite of (and perhaps because of) increases in the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents, apprehensions of Mexicans trying to cross the border illegally have plummeted in recent years – from more than 1 million in 2005 to 286,000 in 2011,” a Pew study said.
Passel also said that the cost of hiring a coyote has risen. When that’s combined with fewer employment opportunities on the U.S. side and the effects of heightened security – a higher chance of getting caught and a physically harder trip as traffickers move toward remote, rural routes – border crossings drop, he said.
The Pew study also cites “a rise in deportations, the growing dangers associated with illegal border crossings, the long-term decline in Mexico’s birth rates and broader economic conditions in Mexico,” as factors for the decline in immigration.
ICE said apprehension is a “key indicator” of the number of illegal immigrants. But Passel said that while the number of people caught trying to sneak into the country is “not a direct measure of flow” of illegal immigrants, “they do seem correlated.”
Leon Ceniceros posted at 11:49 am on Sat, Aug 11, 2012.
Once again, Folks.....yes, once again we Arizonians have to express our gratitude to past Senate President Russell Pearce (the "Father of SB 1070), ex-Speaker Kirk Adams, our Republican Legislators and our wonderful Governor, Jan Brewer for their trend-setting implementation of SB 1070.
Arizona was turning into ....Alta-Sonora...with "Sanctuary City" Mayors and City Councils (many still around today but chastised by the voters to pull back the "welcome mat" to thousands and thousands of Illegal Aliens from Mexico and Points South who flooded into our Cities and Towns from 2000 onward). You couldn't drive into a Home Depot or Lowe's without dozens if not hundreds of Illegal Aliens running to your car or truck. Every major road corner became a hang-out for "day workers". Our schools were overwhelmed with Illegal Alien children who didn't know one word of English and most had never been even in a Classroom.
There were accident after accident on our roads, highways and freeways with over-loaded pickup trucks or vans (usually stolen) driven by smugglers (coyotes) in an unsafe manner. Chases were an everyday occurance leading to "legal" Arizonians being killed or maimed in accidents with these vehicles.
Home robberies were at an all time high before SB 1070 came into effect because the Economy had gone "South" and there were no more "day/construction/landscape jobs" available. So these Illegal Aliens turn to crime or document theft to put food on the table.
Things were so bad here in Arizona that you had to take a Spanish-English dictionary with you when you went to your neighborhood fast-food place just to get a lousy hamburger, chimchanga or french fries. The only people speaking English were............in front of the cash register.
Crime is down all over Arizona. Rapes are down. Home invasions are down. All of these lower crime statistics that our......."ex-Sanctuary City" Mayors are extolling....are down because of SB 1070.
Just this past week, our great Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio lead yet another "job-stealing sweep" at a commercial enterprise, arresting people for using stolen Social Security numbers or what's even more disgusting....people using the Social Security number of a deceased "Legal" American.
Dale Whiting posted at 1:27 pm on Sat, Aug 11, 2012.
Leon,
Just what provisions of SB1070 have contributed to this decline? Ahd just how to you explain that where the decline predates SB1070 the decline stems from SB1070? Cart before horse?
phxvato1202 posted at 8:08 pm on Sat, Aug 11, 2012.
Leon,
you might be thankful and grateful for the actions and works of pearce, adams, and brewer. But you can be sure there are many more that have nothing but disgust and disdain for those three amongst others within their fold. Arizona is now a laughing stock of the entire nation because of their leadership and the stupid laws they have helped enact. The hate just those three have put out in this state is enough to cause a common sensed person to know that they do not care or have cared for Arizona and it's citizens.
Your assertion that we were becoming alta-sonora is funny but not any funnier than those of us that believe that we are becoming the mississippi and alabama of the west.
Your constant ramblings about how the laws of this state need to be followed as you have stated in previous postings is also a meter of your hypocrisy. You demand the law of the land to be followed but yet you have one of those you named who has broken the laws of this state over and over and yet your support for him is unwavering. Also you have a county sheriff who has broken the laws of Arizona many times, one example is that all state agencies that receive taxpayer funds can and will be audited but yet this sheriff has refused an audit as state law says it must be done. Pearce was fired from the state agency for breaking the laws in his job performance.
Your rants and ramblings and writings have me read your words carefully and how and what you say and today it became evident to me that you write in the same form and manner that russell pearce does. I am beginning to wonder???
But anyway so many illegals left before 1070 and many more after it was signed and you know it. The main reason was the economic situations in the state. Give praise all you want to whom you want but bottom line to me your a hypocrite who has so much hate that you want to blame all the issues of life that go wrong on illegals and your having a hard time accepting the fact that this is not so. Oh and by the way of your so intent on preaching that the law of the land needs to be enforced do your research on the citizens of Colorado City, a city so full of fraud and corruption that has cost the taxpayers of arizona lots of wasted fraudulent dollars that is against the law. And by the way they are not illegals, I believe according to the documentary from Channel 3 tv they are all white mormon people.
PaulC1958 posted at 12:37 pm on Thu, Aug 16, 2012.
Leon,
Please explain in a rational and demonstrably true way:
Why any US and Arizona citizen should be the victim of crime at the hands of an illegal alien.
Why the desires, dreams or aspirations of illegal aliens should take president over those of American citizens.
Why American citizens should be forced to take food off the table of their family so that illegal aliens can put food on the table for their family.
Why American kids are forced to submit to an inferior education so the kids of illegal aliens can be educated at public expense.