BORDER CRIME RISES IN IMPERIAL VALLEY.

Byline: Associated Press 

The fertile farmland of the Imperial Valley has been inundated in recent weeks with illegal immigrants looking for an easier way to enter the United States than through San Diego County.

In February, Border Patrol agents assigned to the Calexico office detained a record 10,664 illegal immigrants. Apprehensions were up by 233 percent during the first five days of March over the same period last year, officials said.

Local law enforcement agencies say the onslaught has contributed to a rise in crime - especially automobile and residential burglaries - that they are ill-equipped to deal with.

Operation Gatekeeper, a federal border enforcement initiative started more than two years ago in San Diego, is responsible for the rise in migrant traffic, officials said. Gatekeeper was designed to deter illegal immigration by pushing migrants east into the mountains and deserts, where it is more difficult to cross.

``None of us feels safe here anymore,'' said 71-year-old Rosie Perez, who lives less than a block from the U.S.-Mexico border. ``It's scary having someone in your back yard and wondering if they're a criminal or not.''

Some residents believe the city never should have opposed a federal proposal to replace the metal-mesh Cyclone fence in downtown Calexico with a steel wall. The City Council rejected the proposal in 1995 because merchants feared it would hurt business.

``I'd rather have a bad fence like the one we have now than a steel wall,'' said Steve Wong, who runs Calexico Stationers downtown.

The U.S. Border Patrol transferred agents from Imperial County to San Diego County to beef up forces in the urban area. Now, San Diego County has more than 3,000 agents patrolling a 70-mile border, while Imperial County has fewer than 70 agents covering roughly the same sized jurisdiction.

Randy Stickles, agent in charge of the Calexico office, said the small number of agents in the valley is not enough to handle the wave of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers now rushing the border.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., recently urged Doris Meissner, commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, to send more Border Patrol agents to Imperial County.

``The impact of illegal immigration, drug trafficking and other border-related crime is being felt in all of the cities along the border in the Imperial Valley,'' Feinstein said last month in a letter to Meissner.