, but his main concern in U.S. Highway 77, because 80 percent of all illegal immigrant traffic heads in that direction. (Grant) In 1999, the U.S. Border Patrol has recorded that over 111,000 illegal immigrants were forced to leave the country. Even Attorney General Janet Reno called it a significant milestone. The new record smashed the old record of 69,000 set it 1996. He also stated with continues help from Congress, by hiring more staff and building more jails, that we can and will make the streets safer. Nearly two-thirds of the 50,000 criminal aliens last had convictions for aggravated felonies, and more than 40 percent of the criminal aliens had drug convictions. Many patrol agents are more than satisfied with the turnout of Operation Rio Grande; crime is down 20 percent in the Valley. (Baro)Even in my own personal experience I have been a victim of Operation Border Patrol, and it is safe to say, that they arent bias, they pulled me and my friends over, and only none of us were Hispanic. But the questions kept coming, Citizenship, what school did we go to, where were we born, have you been drinking, where do you work? If thats what people who are not Hispanic have to go through, I cannot help to wonder what the Hispanic looking people go through. Wildlife officials claim that the Border Patrol may be harming animals. The Border Patrol installed dozens of lights along the banks of the river, and it is threatening the endangered, nocturnal ocelot and jaguarondi cats. Because these cats are nocturnal, the lights impose as an obstacle in their ability to move. Fifty miles of floodlights along the Rio Grande will impact everything from moths to butterflies, to birds, bats, and cats, stated by Jim Chapman, chairman of the Lower Valley Sierra Club.What about all this money that is going towards Border Patrol, just in the Rio Grande Valley it costs 3.1 million dollars to keep the Border Patrol running. Thats not ever includin...
