GABRIELA RICO

If it is possible to seal the Arizona-Mexico border from illegal entrants, this could be the year it would happen, the nation's Border Patrol chief said yesterday.
"I think that we've got a shot at it," Border Chief Gus De La Viña said during a visit to Tucson. "We've got an excellent shot at shutting down that border."

An influx of agents, special operations, equipment and technology will hit the Tucson sector in the hopes of stopping the rising number of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers who cross into the United States through the desert.

Since the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year, agents have caught 154,093 illegal immigrants in the Tucson sector. That's an increase of 34 percent from last year, said Andy Adame, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson sector.

"Tucson, needless to say, is a hot spot and leads the nation in apprehensions," De La Viña said.

Although he didn't give details, he hinted that a "couple of things" are in the works for the coming months.

"We're going to be in good shape pretty quick here," De La Viña said.

Additional agents will bring the manpower in the Tucson sector to more than 2,000, he said.

"We will continue to build Arizona up until we can control the border," he said.

During the fiscal year that ended in September, the Border Patrol made 347,256 apprehensions in the Tucson sector, which stretches across most of the Arizona-Mexico border except for a portion near Yuma.