GABRIELA RICO

Border Patrol agents are surveying illegal immigrants to find out whether they came to the United States because of President Bush's immigration reform announcement. A local officer of the Border Patrol union decries the exercise as meaningless and a waste of agents' time.

Agents have been directed to interview 1 out of every 5 immigrants they catch and ask if they heard about the proposed guest worker program and if that motivated them to come, said Mike Albon, public information officer for the Local 2544 Tucson sector of the National Border Patrol Council.

"It does burden agents down with paperwork, like they don't have enough already," he said. "And the survey itself is meaningless because you can't guarantee these people are going to tell you the truth."

A spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson sector said he wasn't aware of the survey being conducted locally.

"I know they're doing it in Texas and parts of Louisiana, but I don't know of any test being done here," said Rob Daniels.

And it's probably too early to tell if the 2-week-old announcement by the president is having an effect on the border, he said.

Chris Simcox, founder of Civil Homeland Defense, a citizen border watchdog group, said his group saw the effect of the president's announcement firsthand.

Last weekend it caught 85 people entering the country illegally, and Simcox said he was surprised by their reaction. His group calls Border Patrol agents when it catches illegal immigrants.

"They were, like, 'What's the problem? President Bush said it was OK,'" he said. "That's the attitude out there, and (Border Patrol) agents are totally demoralized."