Phoenix, Arizona – Shortly after Vicente Fox and George W. Bush became presidents of
their countries, they met in Mexico for the first time on February 16, 2001. Back then, both
presidents appeared ready and willing to work together in terms of a new expanded,
friendly partnership.
During that meeting, the Mexican president openly talked about his bold, long-term vision
for what seemed a new era for both countries. He envisioned a North American Common
Market, a free movement of labor, and even the possibility of a single currency. Bush
offered his own vision in terms of more concrete, shorter-term objectives: to come up with
answers for complex and complicated issues such as unauthorized immigration and drug
trafficking.
Six months later, when both presidents met more formally on September 5, President Fox
came to Washington having at the top of his agenda a comprehensive amnesty for the
millions of Mexicans living without documents in the United States. President Bush
responded to this proposal by saying that a new immigration agreement was unlikely.
While he opposed the idea of a full blown amnesty, Bush considered the expansion of a
temporary worker program, which eventually would have allowed Mexicans living without
legal status to begin a process toward permanent legal residency.
Fox and Bush also discussed anti-drug trafficking measures and a border-control program.
In this topic, Bush made clear since their first meeting that he did not believe in an open-
border concept –as Fox wished– but in protecting the border instead. Less than a week
later after their September’s meeting, the terrorist attacks of September 11 stalled the
bilateral talks among Mexico and the United States, and eventually made it more difficult
to achieve the plans they had envisioned for each country; some of the proposed
objectives never came to materialize during the Bush administration.
For the United States, the crucial priority after September 11 revolved around broadening
the scope of security and defense mechanisms of the country. The issue of border safety
with Mexico came to be seen under a very different and stricter perspective. On March 12,
2002, President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS,) a new cabinet
department, with the assigned responsibility of protecting the U.S. territory from terrorist
attacks, and to respond to natural disasters. In contrast with the Department of Defense –
in charge of military actions abroad–DHS was established to operate in a civilian context
to protect the United States within, at and beyond its borders.
Eight years after the first Fox-Bush meeting, the issue of border security with Mexico, and
not the immigration issue, has become once again a top priority in President Obama’s
domestic security agenda. This time, the main concern is not Islamist terrorists, but the
alarming increase of violence related to the drug wars and cartels in Mexico. Even before
Obama took oath as President, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
stated on January 8, 2009, that the United States had developed plans for a “surge” of
civilian and perhaps even military law enforcement should the bloodshed spread across
the border.
In a telephone interview with The New York Times, Chertoff said, “We completed a
contingency plan for border violence, so if we did get a significant spillover, we have a
surge — if I may use that word — capability to bring in not only our own assets but even
to work with the Defense Department.”
The Washington Post on March 22 published that “President Obama is finalizing plans to
move federal agents, equipment and other resources to the border with Mexico to support
Mexican President Felipe Calderón's campaign against violent drug cartels, according to U.
S. security officials.”
According to the Post, as early as this week officials with the Obama administration may
announce plans for “a crackdown on the supply of weapons and cash moving from the
United States into Mexico that helps sustain that country’s narco-traffickers.”
Such announcement, The Post adds, may have been planned to coincide with Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton’s scheduled trip to Mexico this Wednesday, March 25. Two other key
cabinet members, Attorney General Eric H. Holder, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet
Napolitano, are scheduled to visit Mexico next week.
The alarming levels of drug-trafficking related violence in the country of Mexico prompted
Mexican officials to reinforce military presence along the border. On March 1 of this year,
about 2,000 soldiers arrived at Ciudad Juarez, in the northern state of Chihuahua. Juarez
is located across El Paso, Texas; both cities share the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican officials
have recognized that local law-enforcement agencies have become too small to combat
the growing criminal activity. In addition to a higher military presence, troops have been
assigned to take control of police functions, perform street patrols, and set up highway
checkpoints.
Ciudad Juarez has been particularly racked with drug-trafficking violence. Members of rival
drug cartels have been disputing this zone, one of the most strategic corridors for drug
smuggling into the United States. Reportedly, just in February 250 people were killed in
Juarez in drug-trafficking related incidents. During 2008, this city had about 1,600 killings.
Unofficial tallies put the number of killings in the country at more than 6,000 during the
same year.
The escalation in violence is the result of Mexico’s government aggressive offensive
against powerful drug cartels. Since he took office, President Felipe Calderon has
employed both the army and federal police to fight against drug-trafficking organizations
in Mexico. As part of this unprecedented crackdown, the Calderon administration’s efforts
have deployed 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 police officers throughout the nation. As Mexico’
s government actions have triggered an upsurge in shootouts between soldiers and
traffickers, they have also sparked off a brutal counter-offensive from drug cartels, which
has in turn generated the current bloody fighting.
As the Obama administration steps in to deploy federal agents and equipment along the
border, the main concern of the United States is based on the spillover of the drug wars in
Mexico. Cities of border-adjacent states in the U.S. have been witnessing some of the
effects of drug cartels’ criminal activities, as the violence has crossed over in various ways,
and as drug gang members operate in the United States at different levels.
However, not only cities near the border experience the effects of the drug-trafficking
spillover. The New York Times reported on March 22, that “law enforcement authorities
say they believe traffickers distributing the cartels’ marijuana, cocaine, heroin,
methamphetamine and other drugs are responsible for a rash of shootings in Vancouver,
British Columbia, kidnappings in Phoenix, (Arizona,) brutal assaults in Birmingham,
Alabama, and much more.”
A Justice Department quoted by the Times establishes that drug-trafficking organizations
based in Mexico have large networks in the United States. They coordinate the
distribution of drugs in 230 cities identified by law enforcement officials. Among them are
Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston and Billings, Montana. “Mexican cartels and their affiliates
maintain drug distribution networks or supply drugs to distributors,” on U.S. soil.
In Phoenix, Arizona, spillover violence was to blame for 700 kidnappings between 2007
and 2008. Sam Quinones, an author and journalist with the Los Angeles Times, in his
article titled Phoenix, kidnap-for-ransom capital, writes that “More ransom kidnappings
happen here (Phoenix) than in any other town in America, according to local and federal
law enforcement authorities. Most every victim and suspect is connected to the drug-
smuggling world, usually tracing back to the western Mexican state of Sinaloa, Phoenix
police report… Arizona has become the new drug gateway into the United States. Roughly
half of all marijuana seized along the U.S.-Mexico border was taken on the state's 370-
mile border with Mexico.”
their countries, they met in Mexico for the first time on February 16, 2001. Back then, both
presidents appeared ready and willing to work together in terms of a new expanded,
friendly partnership.
During that meeting, the Mexican president openly talked about his bold, long-term vision
for what seemed a new era for both countries. He envisioned a North American Common
Market, a free movement of labor, and even the possibility of a single currency. Bush
offered his own vision in terms of more concrete, shorter-term objectives: to come up with
answers for complex and complicated issues such as unauthorized immigration and drug
trafficking.
Six months later, when both presidents met more formally on September 5, President Fox
came to Washington having at the top of his agenda a comprehensive amnesty for the
millions of Mexicans living without documents in the United States. President Bush
responded to this proposal by saying that a new immigration agreement was unlikely.
While he opposed the idea of a full blown amnesty, Bush considered the expansion of a
temporary worker program, which eventually would have allowed Mexicans living without
legal status to begin a process toward permanent legal residency.
Fox and Bush also discussed anti-drug trafficking measures and a border-control program.
In this topic, Bush made clear since their first meeting that he did not believe in an open-
border concept –as Fox wished– but in protecting the border instead. Less than a week
later after their September’s meeting, the terrorist attacks of September 11 stalled the
bilateral talks among Mexico and the United States, and eventually made it more difficult
to achieve the plans they had envisioned for each country; some of the proposed
objectives never came to materialize during the Bush administration.
For the United States, the crucial priority after September 11 revolved around broadening
the scope of security and defense mechanisms of the country. The issue of border safety
with Mexico came to be seen under a very different and stricter perspective. On March 12,
2002, President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS,) a new cabinet
department, with the assigned responsibility of protecting the U.S. territory from terrorist
attacks, and to respond to natural disasters. In contrast with the Department of Defense –
in charge of military actions abroad–DHS was established to operate in a civilian context
to protect the United States within, at and beyond its borders.
Eight years after the first Fox-Bush meeting, the issue of border security with Mexico, and
not the immigration issue, has become once again a top priority in President Obama’s
domestic security agenda. This time, the main concern is not Islamist terrorists, but the
alarming increase of violence related to the drug wars and cartels in Mexico. Even before
Obama took oath as President, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
stated on January 8, 2009, that the United States had developed plans for a “surge” of
civilian and perhaps even military law enforcement should the bloodshed spread across
the border.
In a telephone interview with The New York Times, Chertoff said, “We completed a
contingency plan for border violence, so if we did get a significant spillover, we have a
surge — if I may use that word — capability to bring in not only our own assets but even
to work with the Defense Department.”
The Washington Post on March 22 published that “President Obama is finalizing plans to
move federal agents, equipment and other resources to the border with Mexico to support
Mexican President Felipe Calderón's campaign against violent drug cartels, according to U.
S. security officials.”
According to the Post, as early as this week officials with the Obama administration may
announce plans for “a crackdown on the supply of weapons and cash moving from the
United States into Mexico that helps sustain that country’s narco-traffickers.”
Such announcement, The Post adds, may have been planned to coincide with Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton’s scheduled trip to Mexico this Wednesday, March 25. Two other key
cabinet members, Attorney General Eric H. Holder, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet
Napolitano, are scheduled to visit Mexico next week.
The alarming levels of drug-trafficking related violence in the country of Mexico prompted
Mexican officials to reinforce military presence along the border. On March 1 of this year,
about 2,000 soldiers arrived at Ciudad Juarez, in the northern state of Chihuahua. Juarez
is located across El Paso, Texas; both cities share the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican officials
have recognized that local law-enforcement agencies have become too small to combat
the growing criminal activity. In addition to a higher military presence, troops have been
assigned to take control of police functions, perform street patrols, and set up highway
checkpoints.
Ciudad Juarez has been particularly racked with drug-trafficking violence. Members of rival
drug cartels have been disputing this zone, one of the most strategic corridors for drug
smuggling into the United States. Reportedly, just in February 250 people were killed in
Juarez in drug-trafficking related incidents. During 2008, this city had about 1,600 killings.
Unofficial tallies put the number of killings in the country at more than 6,000 during the
same year.
The escalation in violence is the result of Mexico’s government aggressive offensive
against powerful drug cartels. Since he took office, President Felipe Calderon has
employed both the army and federal police to fight against drug-trafficking organizations
in Mexico. As part of this unprecedented crackdown, the Calderon administration’s efforts
have deployed 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 police officers throughout the nation. As Mexico’
s government actions have triggered an upsurge in shootouts between soldiers and
traffickers, they have also sparked off a brutal counter-offensive from drug cartels, which
has in turn generated the current bloody fighting.
As the Obama administration steps in to deploy federal agents and equipment along the
border, the main concern of the United States is based on the spillover of the drug wars in
Mexico. Cities of border-adjacent states in the U.S. have been witnessing some of the
effects of drug cartels’ criminal activities, as the violence has crossed over in various ways,
and as drug gang members operate in the United States at different levels.
However, not only cities near the border experience the effects of the drug-trafficking
spillover. The New York Times reported on March 22, that “law enforcement authorities
say they believe traffickers distributing the cartels’ marijuana, cocaine, heroin,
methamphetamine and other drugs are responsible for a rash of shootings in Vancouver,
British Columbia, kidnappings in Phoenix, (Arizona,) brutal assaults in Birmingham,
Alabama, and much more.”
A Justice Department quoted by the Times establishes that drug-trafficking organizations
based in Mexico have large networks in the United States. They coordinate the
distribution of drugs in 230 cities identified by law enforcement officials. Among them are
Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston and Billings, Montana. “Mexican cartels and their affiliates
maintain drug distribution networks or supply drugs to distributors,” on U.S. soil.
In Phoenix, Arizona, spillover violence was to blame for 700 kidnappings between 2007
and 2008. Sam Quinones, an author and journalist with the Los Angeles Times, in his
article titled Phoenix, kidnap-for-ransom capital, writes that “More ransom kidnappings
happen here (Phoenix) than in any other town in America, according to local and federal
law enforcement authorities. Most every victim and suspect is connected to the drug-
smuggling world, usually tracing back to the western Mexican state of Sinaloa, Phoenix
police report… Arizona has become the new drug gateway into the United States. Roughly
half of all marijuana seized along the U.S.-Mexico border was taken on the state's 370-
mile border with Mexico.”
| ADVERTISEMENT |
| ADVERTISEMENT |
| ADVERTISEMENT |
Published by the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues in Phoenix, Arizona
|
| HISTORY IS ABOUT TO CHANGE Grassroots Journalism |
| ADVERTISEMENT |
| Operation Immigration Arrests, Protests, and Turmoil in Maricopa County |
| Price: $19.95 + s/h $3.80 Total $23.75 Length: 47 minutes EAN: 978-0-9797814-6-9 |
Eduardo Barraza is a journalist and writer,
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
