Arrival of the elite Border Patrol unit signals change in tactics

The unprecedented effort includes covert officers from a celebrated unit and will draw on 200 extra agents, for a total of 2,000 in this sector.

GABRIELA RICO

Members of the Border Patrol's covert tactical team are set to take the lead in the longest and most intense desert operation ever seen on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Officials are looking to these BORTAC agents to repeat last year's performance in which a 30-man team accounted for more than 20 percent of illegal immigrant apprehensions during a 120-day mission.

In previous years, the Border Patrol stepped up its presence during deadly summer months. This year's campaign is expected to start earlier and last longer than previous efforts and will include a "large contingent" of BORTAC agents, the unit's commander, Kevin W. Oaks, said, declining to give numbers.

And these efforts could effectively seal the Arizona-Mexico border, said Gus De La Viña, the nation's Border Patrol chief.

"We will continue to build Arizona up until we can control the border," he said during a visit to Tucson last week. "We've got an excellent shot at shutting down that border."

WHAT IS BORTAC?
 
To complement BORTAC, more than 200 regular patrol agents will be sent to the Tucson sector, bringing the number of agents in the area to more than 2,000, De La Viña said.

The Department of Homeland Security is working with Mexican officials to start a repatriation program under which people caught crossing the border in Arizona would be returned to the interior of Mexico. Illegal immigrants now are dropped off in Mexican cities along the border, including Nogales and Agua Prieta, Son.

More than 200 remote video surveillance systems will be added along the borders, said Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security, at a congressional subcommittee hearing last month.

The "real-time," remotely controlled cameras provide 24-hour coverage and detect border intrusions, he said.

The arrival of the elite BORTAC unit signals a change.

For the first time in recent history, the agents were brought into the Tucson sector last summer to deter the human traffic coming across the border.

In 120 days, a 30-man BORTAC team caught 8,331 illegal immigrants. That represents more than 20 percent of illegal immigrant arrests in the west desert during that same period, according to statistics from the Tucson sector.

The west desert, which encompasses 121 miles of border from the Yuma County line to near Sasabe, is expected to be the focus of increased enforcement again this year.

And when these agents roll into town, local operatives take notice.

BORTAC's ability to track and manage movement of people in the desert is "unparalleled," said Mark Johnson, the patrol agent in charge of Tucson sector air operations, which will work closely with the unit on special operations in coming months.

Johnson said a call for support from these special operations will become a priority mission for his pilots.

"When they tell us that they are tracking a group of 50 people, including three small children and a man who is limping, that is exactly what we'll find," he said.