U.S. CALLED ILL EQUIPPED FOR MEXICO BORDER CRACKDOWN

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1 April 2009

CONTACT: Tim Bueler
media@timbueler.com
(310) 855-3460

U.S. CALLED ILL EQUIPPED FOR MEXICO BORDER CRACKDOWN

Conducting interviews on this topic is the founder and president of the Minuteman Project Jim Gilchrist.

TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) – U.S. authorities at Arizona's six ports of entry along the Mexican border are ill equipped to screen vehicles and trains crossing into Mexico for smuggled weapons and cash, a U.S. official said on Monday.

The Obama administration last week announced plans to crack down on the smuggling of guns and money pouring south from the United States into Mexico that are helping to fuel violence by Mexican drug cartels.

The administration said it will intensify inspections of southbound traffic, with every rail shipment to Mexico due to be inspected, mobile X-ray units to inspect cars, and advanced license-plate readers to identify known smugglers.

But David Higgerson, director of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency's field operations in Arizona, said the state's ports of entry were built to screen traffic heading north from Mexico.

"The obvious problem is and always has been (that) the ports were never built to check stuff going south. It was always considered to be not really our problem," Higgerson said in an interview.

"Well, it is our problem obviously with the cartels and all the other stuff that's going on," Higgerson added.

Department of Homeland Security officials say they are confident the announced measures and other steps will do the job. "We are mobilizing technologies and personnel to assist with the southbound inspections," spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will have a chance to see the border facilities in a trip to the U.S. Southwest this week, Kudwa said.

MAJOR SMUGGLING CORRIDOR

The desert state of Arizona is a major corridor for northbound smuggling of drugs and migrants and southbound trafficking in illegal firearms and bulk cash from drug sales.

The drug gangs are blamed for the deaths of more than 7,000 people in Mexico since the beginning of 2008.

Higgerson's agency is charged with monitoring traffic and pedestrians crossing through the six ports of entry on the Arizona-Mexico border as well as international airports in Phoenix and Tucson. He said current southbound inspections were limited to intermittent "pulse and surge" operations.

These ports of entry have no facilities to adequately screen border crossers, cargo traffic or freight trains bound for Mexico, Higgerson added.

"What about cargo? We don't have facilities to check cargo going into Mexico. If you're going to smuggle guns, are you going to smuggle them in a car or in a truck? Again we have nothing in our southbound to check cargo," he said.

"Same with trains ... going south, if we see an anomaly, all we can do is tell Mexican customs, because two seconds later it's in Mexico. They were never designed for going south, the ports were never designed to do it."

The U.S. government has promised $200 million in additional spending to target the southbound gun and cash smuggling in a bid to curb Mexican drug cartel violence. The United States has pledged to add more than 500 federal agents to border posts and the Mexican interior and boost infrastructure.

Separately, the U.S. economic stimulus package signed into law in February included $720 million for "renovation and construction" of U.S. ports of entry, but Kudwa said she could not yet identify specific projects that would be funded. (Reuters)

About your guest:

Jim Gilchrist founded the multi-ethnic Minuteman Project on Oct. 1, 2004, after years of frustrated efforts trying to get a neglectful U.S. government to simply enforce existing immigration laws.

Jim holds a B.A. in newspaper journalism, a B.S. in business administration, and an M.B.A. in taxation. He is a former newspaper reporter and a retired California CPA (Certified Public Accountant).

Jim is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and recipient of the Purple Heart award for wounds sustained while serving with an infantry unit in Vietnam, 1968 - 1969.

Mr. Gilchrist is a passionate defender of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and an avid supporter of law enforcement organizations. He has appeared on over 1000 radio and TV news and commentary shows in the past twelve months, and he believes he is only one of millions of 21st century minutemen / women / children who want the U.S. to remain governed by the "rule of law" and who want proactive enforcement of our national security protections and our immigration legal code.

Jim has lived in California since 1976 and currently resides in Aliso Viejo with his wife, Sandy.