Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Tuesday that the United States and Mexico are making progress on a new border accord aimed at improving security and that it would also deter drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
Ridge, on a two-day visit to Mexico City with U.S. customs and immigration officials, said he hopes the accord will be ready for signing when President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox meet later this month in Monterrey. Their summit will coincide with a United Nations conference on global development.
Ridge said the new accord would rely on new technology and “prescreening” of low-risk border traffic to ease commerce between the nations. Truckers and commuters have suffered what Ridge called “unconscionable” delays since the U.S. beefed up border security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“It’s pretty clear that our intellectual and technological approach to the border is pretty outdated,” Ridge said. “You can’t sustain the economic relationship we have or help each other with security if it is `business as usual.’ It’s not good enough anymore.”
The new border talks follow one of the most alarming reminders in years of just how porous the U.S.-Mexican border can be. Last week, U.S. agents in southern California uncovered a 1,200-foot tunnel that Mexican drug traffickers had been using for up to two years to cart cocaine and other illegal narcotics into the U.S.
The tunnel, which ran between two farms about 70 miles east of San Diego, was allegedly built by a Tijuana narcotics cartel run by the Arellano Felix family. The cartel charged fees to other traffickers to use the tunnel.
Ridge mentioned the tunnel Tuesday in discussing the security risks along the border and said that better intelligence-sharing and cooperation also would be part of a new accord with Fox’s government. U.S. officials emphasized that they do not suspect Mexico of being a haven for anti-U.S. terrorists.
“There’s no indication that this country [Mexico] has given refuge to terrorists or terrorist financing,” said U.S. ambassador Jeffrey Davidow. He expressed satisfaction that the Mexicans have done a “very good” follow-up on information the U.S. has passed along regarding wider terrorist threats.
Ridge also said the planned deployment this month of 1,500 National Guard troops along U.S. borders, including about 950 along the frontier with Mexico, were only an interim measure until U.S. customs and immigration agencies can train and deploy additional personnel.
“We don’t want to militarize the border with our friends,” Ridge said.
Ridge said the agreement would be based on a similar accord reached with Canada several months ago. Ridge called that accord a “good place to start,” although he acknowledged that the U.S. has more concerns about Mexico because of the drug trafficking and immigration problems.
U.S. officials said a crucial part of a new system would be the prescreening and possible sealing of trucks and other vehicles before they cross the border.
Ridge said the system would rely on businesses and other enterprises with solid histories that could monitor their own employees.
