The Arizona Republic

Arizona's 350-mile border with Mexico will be the most heavily patrolled stretch in the nation under a federal plan to be announced today in Tucson.
The effort, dubbed the Arizona Border Control Initiative, will add 260 Border Patrol agents, four helicopters and several aircraft in the next few months in a multiagency effort to control the flow of illegal immigration through the state and reduce migrant deaths in the desert.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman did not rule out the possibility that for the first time the federal government also will deploy unmanned drones over the border, like those developed for use by the military.

The number of apprehensions in Arizona, more than 400,000 last year, all "points up that the Arizona border is the greatest challenge we face in terms of controlling our borders," said Asa Hutchinson, Border and Transportation Security Under Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. Last year, Arizona accounted for nearly 40 percent of all illegal immigrant apprehensions in the country.

During a meeting with editors and reporters yesterday at The Arizona Republic, Hutchinson said the plan will bring together federal, tribal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Justice Department.

Hutchinson said the plan will dovetail with increased efforts by the federal government to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants.

He was to announce details of the plan today at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

Suzanne Luber, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said under the initiative the federal government plans to deploy 260 additional Border Patrol agents along Arizona's border with Mexico, including 60 agents on temporary assignment for the summer from other sectors.

The additional agents will boost the number of Border Patrol agents assigned to the Tucson sector to nearly 2,000, the most of any sector in the country, Luber said. The Tucson sector is responsible for patrolling all but the southwest corner of Arizona's border.

Last summer, the federal government recorded 151 migrant deaths in the Arizona desert, a record. An analysis by The Republic, however, counted 205 migrant deaths.

As part of the plan to control the Arizona border, the federal government also plans to voluntarily repatriate illegal immigrants to the interior of Mexico.

Those plans, however, depend on on a final agreement with Mexico, Hutchinson said.