Pubdate: Thu, 25 Oct 2007
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Page: A8
Copyright: 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Joel Millman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexican+border
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/homeland+security

SHIFT IS AFOOT ON MEXICAN BORDER

Security Crackdown Cuts Illegal Crossing But Aids Smugglers

EL PASO, Texas -- A security crackdown on the Mexican border is 
believed to have reduced the number of people trying to cross 
illegally into the U.S. while increasing business for professional 
smugglers with ties to the drug trade.

Data to be released next week by the Department of Homeland Security 
are expected to show the number of illegal border crossers caught 
fell to less than one million for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, 
the first time that has occurred since 2003. Through the end of 
August, barely 800,000 apprehensions were recorded along the 
U.S.-Mexico border, a drop of more than 20% from the previous fiscal year.

The decline -- thought to show that fewer migrants are attempting to 
cross -- will add weight to claims by U.S. officials that heavier law 
enforcement is making it more difficult for migrants to sneak across 
the 2,000-mile border. With politicians deadlocked over how to deal 
with illegal immigration, trying to seal the border to catch and 
deter illegal immigrants has become the main policy tool.

But the crackdown also appears to be affecting the markets for 
smuggling people and drugs in Mexico. As tighter security makes 
crossing the border trickier and more hazardous, the traditional 
mom-and-pop operations in Mexico that used to ferry people across 
have been replaced by larger, more-professional criminal gangs, often 
with ties to the illegal-drug trade.

U.S. officials are reporting increased violence along the border, 
including gunfights between rival smuggling gangs, gangs hijacking 
each others' customers en route to U.S. destinations and the rape or 
assault of migrants.

Special Agent Alonzo Pena, chief investigator for U.S. Immigration 
and Customs Enforcement in Arizona, says as the border gets harder to 
cross, fees to smugglers have increased from next to nothing to as 
much as $6,000 a head, making the smuggling business an attractive 
new market for drug gangs.

"It's one of the unintended consequences of sealing the border," Mr. Pena says.

Border Patrol agents have noticed that smaller-scale smugglers on the 
Mexican side are being replaced by more-sophisticated ones who appear 
to have ties to Mexico's cocaine cartels. Smugglers are carrying 
higher-caliber weapons and sometimes dress in camouflage uniforms and 
use military tactics to evade capture.

"Drug cartels have more resources," explains Border Patrol agent 
Martin Hernandez, now in his fifth year monitoring the busy corridor 
between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

In El Paso, the border has become much more difficult to cross. More 
than 2,000 agents patrol a 268-mile border stretch that covers busy 
urban centers in this binational metroplex of three million people, 
as well as remote patches in the New Mexico desert, where ranches 
harbor safe houses used by smugglers.

By adding 500 agents in each of the past two years -- with another 
500 expected next year -- the Border Patrol has nearly doubled its 
strength here. High-tech cameras, motion sensors and miles of 
reinforced steel fence choke off smuggling routes. The addition of 
6,000 National Guard troops along the border for part of this year 
has also increased vigilance.

The crackdown, together with a slower U.S. economy, has helped stanch 
the flow of illegal crossers in several ways. The higher risk of 
getting caught and higher cost of crossing has prompted many illegal 
workers in the U.S. to stay put rather than return home every year to 
do things like celebrate Christmas with their families. For those who 
still want to cross, the higher risk means putting their lives in the 
hands of more-organized criminal groups with the means to get them through.

Authorities are beginning to see commingling of drugs and human loads 
and are frequently seizing migrants who apparently are paying for 
their trip by carrying drugs for traffickers. "Drug smugglers use 
them as mules," the Border Patrol's Mr. Hernandez says, with loads of 
as heavy as 60 pounds each being walked across the desert.

U.S. agents have noted that people smugglers are starting to follow 
drug-smuggling routes protected by Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, a 
cocaine-trafficking organization, either paying a transit fee to the 
cartel or sharing operations with the drug traffickers.

That may explain the apparent paradox that while the smuggling of 
people across the border is down, trafficking in narcotics is ticking 
upward. Department of Homeland Security data this month show a rise 
in border drug seizures, especially of marijuana. A total of 1.7 
million pounds of the drug was seized along the U.S.-Mexico border 
between October 2006 and the end of August, up from 1.4 million 
during the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2006, and 1.2 million in the 
fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2005. Cocaine seizures rose slightly, 
while seizures for methamphetamines and heroin fell slightly. The 
increase in drug seizures is seen by border agents as an indicator of 
an increase in imports.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake