FORT HUACHUCA - The number of illegal immigrants apprehended on this southeastern Arizona Army post last fiscal year was more than double for the previous 12-month budget cycle, according to fort spokeswoman Joan Vasey.
From Oct. 1, 2003, through Thursday, 3,086 illegal immigrants were taken into custody on the fort, compared to 1,230 for the period Oct. 1, 2002, through Sept. 30, 2003, she said.
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Last month 320 illegal border crossers were taken into custody, based on figures provided by the fort.
The highest monthly number apprehended during the last fiscal year on the fort happened in July, when 512 were taken into custody.
In October 58 were apprehended, with 94 in November, 41 in December, 17 in January, 84 in February, 354 in March, 256 in April, 435 in May, 447 in June, 512 in July, 468 in August and 320 in September, according to a post report.
Illegal immigrants are turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol, Vasey said.
The numbers reported by the post are incorporated into Border Patrol's annual report and that means the 3,086 apprehended on the fort last fiscal year are part of the county's numbers of 235,379 taken into custody in the last budget year, according to an agency's Tucson Sector spokesman Rob Daniels. The total for the sector last fiscal year was 491,514.
For decades illegal activities involving people and drug smuggling has been part of the history in Cochise County and the routes include transiting federal land managed by the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Army, he said.
"They (illegal immigrants) are told to follow a specific route and they do," Daniels said.
Those routes meaning using the Huachuca Mountains, some of which include property managed by the park service, forest service and the military, as a passage and part of toe mountains are on the fort, he said.
In some cases illegal immigrants being driven do run the gates on the post and are apprehended, Daniels said.
