Southbound Checkpoints Are PushedSon empujados hacia el sur puestos de control
In a bid to stem the flow of American money and weapons into Mexico, a key committee in the Texas House is examining a proposal that would give the Department of Public Safety permission to assist the federal government in the creation of southbound inspection checkpoints along the border.
A 2009 report released by the federal government stated that 87 percent of the guns seized by Mexican law enforcement agencies between 2004-2009 were traced back to the United States.
Of the American sourced guns seized in Mexico, 39 percent of them came from Texas, more than any other state.
“A lot of effort has been concentrated on, and the emphasis has been on northbound traffic,” said Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas, who is a former FBI agent. “If we’re allowing weapons to go south, it’s part of the problem because those weapons are being used to commit crimes.”
Money and guns smuggled across the border into Mexico, which has strict gun control laws, have been blamed for helping to fuel the violent drug war that has wracked that country.
DPS Director Steve McCraw testified it could cost as much as $125 million per biennium to provide southbound operations for all checkpoints.
McCraw and the bill’s author, Rep. Aaron Pena, R-Edinburg, both expect drug cartels to adapt to the new efforts to crack down on the money laundering and gun smuggling.
“It’s not that hard to see our operation and adapt and we’ve got to recognize that they will,” McCraw said.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced in 2009 that her department would make southbound checkpoints a priority of federal border law enforcement.
“We’ve been doing southbound checkpoints for years,” said Roger Mainer, a spokesman with the El Paso office of the Customs and Border Protection agency.
Since U.S. Customs and Border Protection re-established southbound inspections in 2009, seizures of weapons and money have increased; through fiscal years 2009 and 2010, about $55 million and 484 guns were seized during southbound inspections.
Salinas said he hoped the House bill would provide checkpoints that were “more visible (and) more active” than the current southbound checkpoints.
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