Experts find fault with U.S. border strategy
Comments 8
June 12, 2010 5:48 PM
Michael Barajas

Several national security and U.S.-Mexico border experts criticized current U.S. border policy this past week, saying it inadequately deters drug trafficking from Mexico and pushes would-be immigrants into the arms of criminal organizations

In a teleconference Monday sponsored by the Immigration Policy Center — a think tank and immigration research organization — border and security experts analyzed current U.S. enforcement efforts along the frontier and blamed the government for what they called ineffective efforts to quell border violence at its source.

David A. Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego, said the United States has unprecedented levels of federal enforcement activity along the border, with about double the number of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents compared to just a decade ago.

The massive enforcement effort has produced two unfortunate side effects, Shirk said. Drug runners from Mexico have now evolved into “highly sophisticated organizationsâ€