Thread: Secure cargo: El Paso-Juárez test sites

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Secure cargo: El Paso-Juárez test sites
El Paso Times Editorial Board
Posted: 10/20/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT

El Paso and Juárez have been selected to test "secure cargo" science in what we think is a logical -- and longtime coming -- step in both securing our borders and easing wait times on our international bridges.

Trade with Mexico is a major part of our economy. When cargo is stalled in bridge lines and at inspection stations, goods do not move in a timely fashion.

The main objective is stopping the flow of illegal contraband from Mexico using a global positioning system (GPS). It can also be used to stop the flow of smuggled drug-cartel cash and weapons from the U.S. into Mexico.

If we know there's no contraband aboard, the tractor-trailers can get a speedy wave-through.

This is a federal initiative, although it's one that state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, has been pushing for at least a decade.

Shapleigh has also been pushing a plan whereby cargo trailers are secure and loaded on a rail system, like an airport people mover, and carried across ports fully secured.

In this particular federal plan for El Paso-Juárez, the government is laying out $3.6 million whereby cargo loaded ontotractor-trailers in Juárez maquiladora plants can, by using technology, be secured tight and monitored from the Mexico plant into El Paso.

A secure truck gets the wave-through. Not only does that speed trade, but it cuts down on idling engines spewing pollutants into the air.

El Paso County Commissioners Court has been chosen to monitor the program. It has enlisted a private company, TransCorp, to run the operation, and now it's up to individual maquiladoras to sign on.

Shapleigh said cargo will be loaded under the scrutiny of surveillance cameras. There will be sensors on the rigs to make sure they in no way divert their calculated course to the port of entry.

Shapleigh said there will be sensors to detect if an object is thrown on top of a van already en route

If a van goes off course, or there is a questionable detection, it does not get its green light. It goes back in the wait line.

It's good the government is taking new, forward steps in using available technology to secure the border.

And as Shapleigh readily points out, technology can also move people faster.

Let's continue to implement these measures.

All I can say is that it's something. But will it work? I doubt it. People at the plants loading boxes will fall prey to drug cartels. Who knows what will be in the box? You would have to have eyeballs on products from assembly to loading. I don't see that happening. Maybe if they ran the dogs thru before securing it "tight" they could find out. But nothing is fail proof and the more desperate you are the harder you will try. And drug cartels will stop at nothing. There are already way too many BP that are bought off or threatened enough to help them.
I know it's hard getting the trucks through. I know how much time it takes and it's hard on the air and the drivers. Years ago when we went down getting a motorhome through was a big deal.
What is the answer? I have no clue, but try anything.

It probably won't work because no matter what is tried, the bad people always find a way to circumvent the system.
At one time here in El Paso there was actually only ONE person who inspected the trucks coming across the border. I think there's not much more now. That is absurd.