06 March 2002

U.S. Official Promotes More Efficient Management of U.S.-Mexico Border

Mexico City -- In responding to heightened security needs stemming from the September 11 terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, Mexico and the United States have an opportunity to build "a modern and efficient border for the 21st century," says Governor Tom Ridge, U.S. director of homeland security.

Appearing March 5 at a joint press conference with Interior Minister Santiago Creel of Mexico, Ridge said high-level U.S.-Mexico working groups had met during the previous two days to develop a list of specific measures to strengthen border security. The list will be presented to President Bush and Mexico's President Vicente Fox when the two leaders meet in the Mexican city of Monterrey on March 20.

Many of these measures, Ridge said, involve the enhanced use of technology to streamline the clearance of low-risk people and goods, allowing U.S. and Mexican officials to focus their efforts on high-risk border traffic. "Once you've got the no-risk and low-risk set aside, then you can direct your human resources and technology to the cargo and the people you know nothing about," Ridge said. Mexico and the United States, he indicated, share the goal of facilitating the flow of legitimate people and goods along their 2,000-mile border.

Ridge pledged that the United States would not make "unilateral" decisions about border security, emphasizing that border security depends on respect for each nation's sovereignty. However, Ridge said, "it would send an extraordinary signal to the world" if Canada, Mexico and the United States eventually develop a trilateral approach to border security.

Responding to Mexican concerns about the deployment of additional National Guard troops on the U.S.-Mexico border, Ridge said that the United States "will not militarize its borders with friends and allies." Ridge called the use of National Guard troops a temporary measure, explaining that as soon as additional Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents are trained, the troops will be withdrawn. Ridge also said that a proposal to allow U.S. Customs officials to pre-screen Mexican cargo would depend on authorization from the Mexican government.

In regard to a proposed migration agreement between Mexico and the United States, Ridge made a clear distinction between the issues of migration and border security. Noting that bilateral discussions on migration began months before the September 11 attacks, Ridge said that those talks continued, although with less publicity. "While most of the public attention ... of the past months has been directed toward border security, privately, the high-level working group -- our Secretary of State Powell, Attorney General Ashcroft, Secretary Creel and Secretary Castaneda -- have been working on that issue separately," he observed, adding that "private discussions about migration have not lost their intensity."

Ridge gave the Fox Administration high marks for its bilateral cooperation, pointing out that many new border security initiatives were the result of greater trust and collaboration between Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agencies during recent years. "At the heart of improving our security and enhancing the flow of legal goods and people across the borders ... [and] collaborating on fighting crime, illegal drug activity, weapons running, and dealing with migration -- the heart of those four issues involves greater information sharing," Ridge said.

Ridge was accompanied by a senior delegation that included Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Otto Reich, National Security Council Adviser Frank Taylor, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mary Ryan, U.S. Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner, and INS Commissioner James Ziglar. The group traveled to El Paso, Texas, on March 6 to observe U.S.-Mexico border procedures.