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Reno said that she will increase the number of Border Patrol
agents at the San Diego/Tijuana border by an additional 200
Border Patrol agents this year. These 200 new agents are in
addition to the 378 Border Patrol agents hired and redeployed to
the San Diego border last year; the new Border agents will be
aided by 24 support personnel.
When coupled with last year's increase, the 200 new Border
Patrol agents will mean that agent strength on the line will have
increased by nearly 60 percent since 1992, an unprecedented
infusion of resources. The increase is part of the Clinton
administration's ongoing support for Operation Gatekeeper, a
border enforcement initiative that has deterred illegal border
crossers and contributed to a 32% decrease in apprehensions from
October through December 1994, as compared to the same period in
1993.
In each of these efforts, Reno said that new technology will also
be sent to California to improve INS' ability to perform its
critical functions, including helping the agency identify
criminal aliens and track them for prosecution and deportation,
cutting back dramatically on the amount of time that enforcement
officers spend on paperwork rather than in the field and creating
computer networks that will aid INS officers in determining a
person's immigration status.
She said, "providing the INS with the kind of basic and
state of the art technology to vastly improve the agency's
enforcement and service capabilities is a top priority." She
added, "state of the art technology and equipment that will be
installed throughout California by the end of the year is going
to make a tremendous difference in the number of people we catch
violating immigration laws and how we handle them -- as well as
providing better service to those people who are law-abiding."
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