http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_227183400.html

Aug 15, 2006 6:43 pm US/Eastern

Congressman Murphy Visits Mexican Border
(KDKA) PITTSBURGH Illegal immigration, drug smuggling and problems along the Mexican border are major topics of conversation today.

Recently, Congressman Tim Murphy had a chance to see for himself how things work at one of the country's biggest border crossings in Laredo, Texas.

Murphy took a home video camera with him to document his trip for a KDKA exclusive.

Murphy says he and fellow Congressman Gresham Barrett of South Carolina got tired of talking.

“We talk about it and debate issues and read about it but I wanted to see for myself,” Murphy said.

Murphy chose Laredo - the busiest crossing in the U.S. for commercial traffic and the third busiest for pedestrians and cars.

“Plus it is one where there are major problems across the border,” Murphy said. “There's a lot of crime and narcotics trafficking there.”

To find drugs, agents use specially trained dogs, and a giant x-ray machine - basically a robotic arm attached to a huge trailer that scans every truck and bus coming across. However, smugglers will apparently do just about anything to fool the system.

Murphy saw a tour bus where, the day before, agents noticed some new paint and rivets, and discovered a lead-lined compartment with 730 pounds of high grade crack cocaine inside.

Smugglers also use legitimate-looking commodities to get drugs into the U.S.

“We see a lot of interior type of smuggling,” said Eugenio Garza, the Port Director. “Where it's in the commodity itself, it's in furniture, it's in clay pots, it's in tile hollowed out and it's coming in.”

Murphy says drugs aren't all that's being smuggled.

“Also the human trafficking was amazing,” Murphy said. “We saw a Honduran couple who paid $3000 apiece to be smuggled across. They probably sold everything they had to do that. They were caught.”

Murphy even saw a photograph of a family, smuggled in the back of a sweltering truck in a wooden box, but he says poor Mexicans aren't the country's biggest border security threat.

“Forget the sheer number of immigrants, forget the drug issues,” Murphy said. “How many terrorists does it take to be a problem? One.”

At the end of his trip, Murphy left the relative safety of the official crossing to head to the real border.

“We're on the Rio Grand River. It's about 5 minutes to 9 local time,” Murphy said. “They say this is a section where they will float in tubes across the water.”

With hundreds of miles of border and no fences, Murphy says in his opinion, agents can't possibly provide the level of security American citizens expect.

“If your house is on fire and you're putting it out with a garden hose, you'll make some headway, but the fire it too big,” Murphy said. “You're not going to catch it and that's where we are.”

Murphy says he plans to take what he saw back to Washington to fight for more border agents and better equipment.

He also said he plans to go back to Texas, and convince more of his colleagues to come along.