The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 73/No. 13      April 6, 2009

 
U.S. gov’t adds cops
to border with Mexico
(front page)
 
BY SETH GALINSKY  
Using increasing drug cartel violence in Mexico as a pretext, Janet Napolitano, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, announced March 24 at the White House that Washington is sending at least 450 more cops to the U.S.-Mexico border. It is also increasing the number of U.S. agents inside Mexico.

The White House is still weighing a request by Texas governor Richard Perry to send 1,000 National Guard troops to the border.

The increase comes on top of the thousands of U.S. cops already there, Napolitano said, "a very, very heavy federal presence."

"I anticipate that there will be more announcements," she said, "This is really the first wave of things that will be happening."

Napolitano, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Attorney General Eric Holder will all visit Mexico to talk with Mexican government officials in coming days, reported the Washington Post.

The announcement shed some light on the massive operation already in place. The plan “involves almost every agency in the federal government," said Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg at the White House press conference.

Napolitano said that 100 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) would be sent to the border during the next 45 days. ATF agents inside Mexico will increase from five to nine. The number of joint Border Enforcement Security Task Force "BEST" units—made up of FBI, Border police, ICE immigration agents, U.S. Coast Guard, and Mexico's Secretariat of Public Security—will double to include 190 agents.

The number of ICE "attachés" inside Mexico, mostly in Mexico City, will rise 50 percent, from 24 to 36. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which has 11 offices inside Mexico, is adding 16 new positions in the southwest border areas.

ICE "Border Liaison Officers," who work directly with Mexican police, will quadruple from 10 to 40.

The U.S. Customs and Border Police are sending additional Z-Backscatter mobile X-ray units to the border along with additional "cross-trained" canine teams that can sniff out weapons and money. According to its manufacturer, the "unobtrusive" vans with Backscatter units have unique "drive-by" capabilities that allow imaging "suspect vehicles" while in motion and can detect "stowaways."

U.S. agents are also inspecting all trains going to Mexico along all eight cross-border rail lines. Most of the moves are continuations or expansions of programs set up during the George W. Bush administration.

Thousands of National Guard troops were stationed along the Mexico border from May 2006 to July 2008 as part of a crackdown on undocumented workers. Washington has often used the “war on drugs” as an excuse to arrest immigrant workers for the sole "crime" of being in the United States without papers.
 
 
Related articles:
Socialist denounces U.S. militarization of border  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home