Here is a knee slapping AP wire, you just have to get a chuckle from. It looks like the Bush meeting with the President of Mexico had a discernable impact.
Mexico Reinforces Its Border
by ARTURO SALINAS
Associated Press Writer
TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) -- Mexico is fortifying its borders in preparation for a flood of summer visits from Mexicans living in the United States, authorities said.
At least 300,000 Mexicans living both legally and illegally in the United States and Canada are expected to return home on vacation, said Albino Gonzalez, director of a new border initiative dubbed ''Programa Paisano,'' which loosely translates as ''Operation Countrymen.''
Increased border traffic leaves Mexico open to more drugs and weapons from the United States, Gonzalez said at a news conference late Friday. It also heightens the chance of corruption, with unscrupulous officials more likely to allow undocumented migrants to sneak in and out of Mexico in exchange for bribes, he said.
Beginning Sunday, guards will be on high alert at 79 spots along the border, including bridges, automobile checkpoints, airports and bus terminals, Gonzalez said. Three hundred volunteers from government and nonprofit groups will watch for corruption, he said.
A program begun in December allows border agents to search a minimum of 5 percent of all people and vehicles crossing into Mexico from the United States. Under the program, federal police officers are allowed to patrol heavily traveled highways for illegal migrants and vehicles carrying drugs and guns.
The initiative also authorizes police in the central states of Oaxaca, Guanajuato and Michoacan to stop a higher percentage of buses for searches. |
