Via The Star-Telegram

By BRYON OKADA and DIANE SMITH
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITERS

05/15/2006

FORT WORTH - Under President Bush, the U.S. has already deported more people than under any other president in U.S. history.

Since Bush took office, the U.S. has not deported fewer than 150,000 illegal immigrants a year and had deported an estimated 881,478 through 2005. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. deported 160,700 people in fiscal 2005. Of these, 52.5 percent were criminal illegal immigrants.

Now Bush is poised to push a harder stance by bringing in National Guard troops to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. He is expected to provide details during a prime-time address tonight.

News of the president's plan comes as hard-line immigration advocates push for better policing of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. But longtime immigration experts and former government officials say the public hasn't been paying attention.

Lynn Ligon, a retired work-site investigator for the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said the agency "has been enforcing the laws all along."

But a recent Zogby poll commissioned by the Center for Immigration Studies found that 70 percent of respondents agree with the statement, "Efforts in the past have been grossly inadequate and the government has never really tried to enforce immigration laws."

At its shrillest, the national hoopla -- immigrants and critics shouting at each other in the streets "Si se puede!" and "Secure the border, that's an order!" -- illustrates the no-win situation that immigration enforcement officials have to deal with every day.

"The public may want to see high-profile raids," Ligon said, "so they can say, 'Boy, I'm not going to shop there,' and then next week they're back again."

High-profile is what the public got with the April 20 bust of IFCO Systems North America, a Houston-based pallet-services company. Seven managers and 1,187 illegal immigrants were arrested in 26 states.

Same with Operation Tarmac, which was launched in December 2001 and netted more than 900 unauthorized workers at U.S. airports, including 62 at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport in November 2002.

In both cases, the rhetoric was tough. The night of the IFCO bust, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the government would target the biggest offenders. Julie Myers, chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, echoed the sentiment. Talk of an amnesty program, long part of Bush's proposed policy for handling illegal immigration, subsided.

Immigrants, legal and illegal, interpreted the IFCO bust differently.

Rumors of random raids and widespread stings circulated, including in Fort Worth. Students, mostly in rural areas, stayed home from school. A rumor circulated that authorities were looking for single men and people with criminal records.

Immigration officials expressed dismay at the reaction. "I'm starting to sound like a broken record," agency spokesman Carl Rusnok said wearily after another day of trying to tell people that no random raids were being carried out.

This is the fickle, schizophrenic history that immigration enforcement officers deal with: wild swings between talk of amnesty programs and mass deportations.

"Immigration [officials] won't pick up kids coming out of school -- that is a no-no," Ligon said. "They are not going to be following kids home to see where they live."

It's not that the illegal immigrants aren't there in plain sight. Everybody knows. But these days -- post-9-11 -- the focus is on stopping terrorists, not day laborers.

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