Border Shmorder

This is the self-imposed assignment that convinced me to never ever go into the business of news reporting. Especially on shit I know nothing about.

Journalists are so annoying.


TUCSON – The number of people entering the United States illegally has decreased by 30 percent since last year, U.S. Border Patrol officials said.

This February, the Tucson Sector of the Border Patrol apprehended 34,164 migrants, compared with 43,153 arrests in February 2006, according to the Tucson Border Patrol Office.

Spokesman Gustavo Soto said the border is becoming "harder and harder to cross," since the federal government bolstered the Tucson Sector's force from 2,400 to 2,600 agents over the last year.

Agents, however, have received help from an outside patrol group: the Minutemen.

"The Border Patrol is spread thin," said Lance Altherr, director for the Tucson Chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps., which has gained at least 100 new members in the last year.

Altherr said the dramatic decrease in apprehensions does not reflect a decline in actual immigrant activity at the border. There are simply fewer illegal entrants being caught – a fact he said is undoubtedly linked to the Minutemen's success.

"We consider ourselves almost the third line of defense," Altherr said. "[Migrants] stay away because they kinow we're there."

No More Deaths, a Tucson-based humanitarian organization, has performed more rescues in the desert since December, but attributes this increase to normal seasonal patterns.

"We're doing just as much work as we've ever done," said Carrie Berry, a volunteer.


I'm sure you'd rather be reading a zine about the many varieties of air guitar, or how much I love muffins...