MCRI ·
Border Incidents Increase in Arizona
Janice Kephart
Center for Immigration Studies
December 1, 2012
Janice Kephart is the Director of National Security Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies.
Data gathered by a private organization has documented a sharp rise in illegal entries along the Arizona border.
The non-governmental volunteer group Secure Border Intelligence uses various official and unofficial sources, including hidden cameras, to compile a list of incidents along a portion of Arizona's border with Mexico. All data are verifiable, but confidential, given the sensitive nature of the work.
Secure Border Intelligence's footage was used in the Center for Immigration Studies video "Hidden Cameras on the Arizona Border 3: A Day in the Life of a Drug Smuggler" (viewable on the right panel).
This Memorandum attempts to catalogue and analyze the current sharp rise in illegal entries since August in the context of what the president and Congress should consider as the nation launches into another post-campaign season of "let's talk immigration reform".
Illegal Activity Surging since August. From August 1 to September 23, 2012, more than 1,000 incidents occurred in 915 "hot spots" in a small area stretching from the central Arizona border to about 70 miles north to the Interstate 8 east-west highway, crossing north over the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation to the Barry Goldwater Firing Range and into the Sonoran Desert National Monument. There have been 3,275 incidents from August 1 to October 19. In contrast, just 509 incidents were logged from January through July.
(Editor's note: See reference to President Obama's June 15 amnesty for nearly 2 million "Dreamers.")