A stepped-up initiative assigning 534 additional border agents in Arizona is “nothing less than a full-court press” toward increasing control of the state’s border, a key homeland security official said.

“We are increasing resources and we are ratcheting up our level of enforcement activity here in Arizona, and we will gain control of this, what is the weakest part of our border with Mexico,” said Robert Bonner, commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Mr. Bonner said the second phase of the Arizona Border Control Initiative, which was started a year ago, will focus on clamping down on illegal immigration, drug-smuggling activity and securing the border against potential terrorist infiltration.

No known Al-Qaida operatives have been among those apprehended illegally crossing the border, but the government has information that such infiltration from Mexico has been contemplated, according to Mr. Bonner.

“As daunting as it is, the Department of Homeland Security is determined to establish greater control in the Arizona border,” Mr. Bonner said.

Shutting Down West Corridor

He added that the foremost aim will be to shut down the west desert corridor, a stretch encompassing the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation’s border with Mexico.

Mr. Bonner and Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar said the increased control will be accomplished through a combination of increased enforcement activity involving more “boots on the ground,” increasing helicopters and airplanes to 42 from 19, other resources and a strategy of rapid response and mobility to border intrusions.

Of the new agents, 155 will be veterans permanently transferring to Arizona. An additional 379 new agents have been hired, some now training and others to follow, officials said.

Until the new agents come on, 200 veteran agents will be brought into the 287-mile Tucson sector on a temporary basis. The Tucson and Yuma sectors of the Border Patrol have about 2,500 agents now, and the additions will push the force to about 3,000. “The operational control will be incremental,” Mr. Aguilar said.

Mr. Bonner said he hopes that this year’s additional agents will be enough to gain the control he’s aiming for, but that even more agents and resources will be added in the future if needed.

Mr. Bonner and Michael Nicley, chief of the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, denied that the announcement was made in response to the April 1 scheduled start of civilian border watch operations in southeastern Arizona. Mr. Bonner said the border initiative’s second phase has been in planning since last fall.

The Minuteman Project plans to place volunteers, some of them armed, along 23 miles of border between Douglas and Naco to observe and report illegal activity to the Border Patrol.

Mr. Bonner said he was hopeful that the volunteers would not try to engage in any inappropriate behavior and would leave immigration-related issues to law enforcement professionals.

If people attempt to take the law into their own hands “to obviously engage in inappropriate use of force or assault on anybody … that’s vigilantism, and there’s no place for it in America,” Mr. Bonner said.

Of the strategy he was announcing, Mr. Bonner said, “Our enforcement efforts are a full-court press. Illegal aliens and their smugglers will have to run a gauntlet. The borderline is just the beginning of that gauntlet.”

Interior checkpoints as well as checks at airports, train and bus stations will be used to discourage illegal entry by making it futile and there will be an added focus on trying to disrupt smugglers and their operations, he added.

Mr. Bonner said authorities won’t be able to gain control to the extent that no one will be able to cross through Arizona. “What it does mean is there is a very high probability of apprehension,” he said.

The 389-mile Arizona border is considered the most vulnerable stretch of the 2,000-mile southern border. Last year’s crackdown, which brought additional agents and technology to the state, was aimed at tightening the border. —