Posted on 11/12/2001 3:51:05 PM PST by sarcasm
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's top national security official will travel to Washington on Nov. 19 to begin discussions with homeland security chief Tom Ridge on securing the porous U.S.-Mexico border, amid concerns that it is a weak flank in the war on terrorism.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow has confirmed that the newly appointed Ridge will meet with Adolfo Aguilar Zinzer a day before a high-level bilateral panel on immigration issues begins new border discussions. Davidow said the two security officials will discuss ways to harmonize procedures such as customs inspections and to share immigration information.
``There are many themes that we have been discussing for many years, and perhaps they now will get more of a push,'' Davidow said at a media briefing at Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Relations.
Since the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1994, trade between the two nations has exploded, taxing the ability of the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service to patrol a border about 2,000 miles long.
U.S. officials are concerned that the long border makes it easy for would-be terrorists to enter the country. Mexico is worried that tougher restrictions would restrict exports to the United States, its largest trading partner.
There is no hard evidence that the 19 terror suspects who have been identified as carrying out the attacks on New York and the Pentagon used Mexico as a springboard into the United States.
But Felipe de Jesus Preciado, director of Mexico's National Migration Institute, told the Televisa TV network on Tuesday night that there is a good chance that some of the hijackers stayed in Mexico. It was apparently the first time that a Mexican immigration official has suggested that terrorists might have been on Mexican soil.
``Effectively, there have been signs that they could have been along the border,'' Preciado said, without offering details.
His comments were an admission that just as smugglers funnel drugs or people across the border, a terrorist too could easily slip through the cracks.
``I think we all have to be realistic that, yes, it is a possibility,'' Davidow said. ``We don't have any evidence that terrorists have utilized Mexico for this purpose, but at the same time we have talked with the Mexican government . . . because there are many people from third countries -- not just from Central America but Asian, African and European countries -- that for many years have been coming to Mexico and using Mexico as a trampoline to enter the United States.''
Two of the 19 suspects believed to have attacked the United States -- Nawaq Alhamzi and Khalid Almihdhar -- lived for a time in San Diego, the largest U.S. city along the border with Mexico. Six of the 19 did not have any record with U.S. immigration, prompting speculation that they may have entered Mexico using false documents, then slipped across the border.
``If a Mexican day laborer can get through on the southern border, so can an al Qaeda terrorist,'' said John Keeley, a researcher with the Center for Immigration Studies, a immigration policy research center in Washington.
``Effectively, there have been signs that they could have been along the border,'' Preciado said, without offering details.
While America sleeps, Tick tick tick........
Elementary dear Watson!!
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