Gains Made Over Border Control, INS Says : Immigration: New fencing and increased staff have reduced violence and the number of crossings, officials report. Seizures of illegal drugs have soared.

WASHINGTON —  Enhanced security measures have reduced illegal crossings of the U.S.-Mexican border near San Diego and helped combat border violence and drug traffic, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said Saturday.

INS Commissioner Gene McNary cited several statistical indicators for the last year that he said “show for the first time significant progress is being made to regain control” of the border along the 66-mile San Diego sector.

“This is not only reducing illegal border crossings,” McNary said, “but saving lives as well.”

He said figures for the fiscal year ending Oct. 1 show a drop in homicides of illegal immigrants, a decrease in accidental deaths on freeways near San Diego, a decline in the number of assaults against Border Patrol officers and huge increases in cocaine and marijuana seizures by authorities.

Border Patrol cocaine seizures in the last year increased elevenfold over the previous year, the INS reported, while the number of marijuana seizures more than quadrupled.

The agency said that last year saw another annual increase in arrests of people attempting to enter the United States illegally in the San Diego sector, but it said it was encouraged by a pattern that emerged.

“Apprehensions inland from the immediate border have declined substantially,” the INS said, “indicating the greater effectiveness of the border control program in preventing illegals from penetrating the first line of defense.”

Figures for the San Diego sector, which usually accounts for nearly half the arrests along the southern U.S. border, showed 564,000 illegal immigrants taken into custody in the last year, contrasted with 540,000 the year before, an increase of about 4.5%. There was a 6.5% decrease during the last month of the year, paralleling a trend seen at sectors in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

While total arrests in the San Diego sector rose by about 24,000 last year, the station at San Clemente had a 35% decline in the number of illegal immigrants taken into custody--from 67,495 to 44,182.

“That is an indication that we are stopping more at the border,” said INS spokesman Verne Jervis.

McNary attributed the improved security in the San Diego zone to the installation of reinforced steel fencing where illegal crossings had been heaviest, new high-intensity lights in crucial areas, the assignment of more than 300 additional Border Patrol agents and stepped-up cooperation from Mexican authorities.

Soldiers, Seabees, and National Guard units have converted steel matting once used for temporary aircraft runways into 14 miles of border fencing over the last two years, replacing ineffective chain-link and cable barriers.

The barrier and the enhanced lighting have been “significant factors in gaining control of the border,” McNary said.

Illegal border crossings have occurred at a rate of 1.1 million annually in recent years, according to INS calculations. Officials estimate that about half end in arrests.

The intensified enforcement on the U.S. side has been accompanied by increased vigilance on the Mexican side.

McNary acknowledged the work of the Beta Group, created by Mexican authorities to patrol their side of the border. The unit, the commissioner said, “has been a major factor in the reduction of violence by border bandits.”

Two years ago, there were nine border homicides attributed to bandits in the San Diego zone, but in the year just ended there was none.

In the San Diego sector, cocaine seizures soared to 7,529 pounds last year from 682 the previous year. Marijuana seizures rose to 37,642 pounds from 8,495.

For the entire border, the INS said, drug seizures rose from $979 million in 1991 to $1.4 billion in 1992.