- FILE PHOTO 27NOV00 - U.S. border patrol agents find Mexican migrants hiding in the Calexico desert near Tijuana in this photo taken November 27, 2000. 1.5 million illegal immigrants are caught annually by U.S. border patrol agents in this region alone. [Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox, who will be sworn in on December 1, has appointed a border tsar to focus on better treatment of migrants by the United States.]