By Dennis Wagner
USA TODAY
TUCSON — A little-known coalition of U.S. and Mexican police agencies has played a major part in cracking down on smuggling and illegal immigration along the Arizona-Mexico border, top Homeland Security officials say.
The joint operation among the U.S. Border Patrol, Mexican federal police and about 60 U.S. state, federal, tribal and local police agencies has had dramatic success making drug seizures and arresting undocumented immigrants, says Alan Bersin, director of Customs and Border Protection.
Since the Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats launched quietly in September 2009 with coordinated training, intelligence-sharing and patrols, the program has resulted in the arrests of 270,000 illegal border crossers, the seizure of 1.6 million pounds of marijuana and the recovery of $13 million in cash in the border’s Tucson sector.
The area became a funnel point when officials clamped down in other states along the U.S. border with Mexico.
Bersin said that as the program continues, it will be another factor in the efforts to help stem the flow of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers into the United States.
Bersin said this alliance is unique because it includes cooperative policing from the Mexican side.
David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego, said collaborating more closely with Mexico to battle drug trafficking and human smuggling represents a welcome shift in the way the United States handles border issues.
“The traditional U.S. approach has been one that focuses on unilateral solutions,” he said. “The result is you can’t do much from one side of the border.”
Although working more closely with Mexican law enforcement officials will help the U.S. tackle drug trafficking and human smuggling, those problems can’t be solved through cross-border enforcement alone.
More emphasis has to be put on reducing drug consumption in the U.S. and creating jobs in Mexico, Shirk said.
On Tuesday, Bersin said the alliance is part of an overall campaign to plug the last corridor for contraband and illegal immigration. He predicted that the cartels “will make a stand here to try to preserve their smuggling routes.”
Bersin said the goal of the alliance and other initiatives is to manage the border and make it safe.
“Border safety and security does not mean sealing the border to a point where not one single illegal alien comes across,” he said. “This is perfection to which we do not aspire.”
Wagner also reports for The Arizona Republic.
Contributing: Daniel Gonzalez, The Arizona Republic.
Action on the border
A by-the-numbers look at efforts to patrol the U.S.-Mexican border:
20,700
Border Patrol agents today, more than double the number in 2004.
1,200
National Guard troops deployed on border assignments.
779,000
Illegal immigrants that Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed in fiscal years 2009 and 2010, more than half of them convicted criminals.
16%
Increase in border drug seizures. Weapons seizures rose 28% and illicit-currency seizures were up 35% in fiscal 2009 and 2010.
3,500
Employers suspected of hiring illegal immigrants since January 2009 that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has audited; 235 businesses were debarred (prohibited from receiving federal contracts).
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