US patrolmen reoccupy Mexican border strip

May 8, 1980

US border patrolmen have reoccupied the south levee of the Tijuana River, a border strip on the US side used as a staging zone for smuggling in Mexicans. Over 300 aliens have been arrested this week. Contrary to the usual procedure of allowing captured "undocumental" aliens to return voluntarily to Mexico, all those seized in the United States are being held on charges. Chula Vista patrolmen captured 337,930 such aliens in the last fiscal year, an estimated half of the 700,000 who fled across the border.