It's nice to see Obama interested in border security. Now, if we could only get him interested in the US border.
FreeBeacon reports (via
Gateway Pundit) the following:
Obama administration and Mexican
government officials recently discussed creating a three-tier security
system designed to protect Mexico’s southern border from drug and human
traffickers, according to U.S. officials.
The border control plan calls
for U.S. funding and technical support of three security lines
extending more than 100 miles north of Mexico’s border with Guatemala
and Belize. The border security system would use sensors and
intelligence-gathering to counter human trafficking and drug running
from the region, a major source of illegal immigration into the United
States.
According to the officials
who discussed the U.S.-Mexican talks on condition of anonymity, the
Mexican government proposed setting up three security cordons using
electronic sensors and other security measures along the southern
Mexican border, along a line some 20 miles from the southern border, and
along a third security line about 140 miles from the southern Mexican
territorial line.
The plan would be funded in part through the Merida Initiative, a U.S.-led anti-drug trafficking program that has involved nearly $2 billion in U.S. funds.
Border security was a major topic
during the visit to Mexico last month by Homeland Security Secretary
Janet Napolitano, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner
Thomas Winkowski, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant
Secretary Alan Bersin.
Napolitano made no mention of the southern border protection plan after her visit.[...]
A DHS spokesman would not say if
southern Mexico border security was discussed during the recent
Napolitano visit. He referred questions about the three-tier border
security system to the White House.
A White House spokeswoman had
no comment and referred questions to DHS and the State Department. A
State Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
Mexican Embassy spokesman Ariel Moutsatsos declined to comment.
The plan apparently is being
kept secret within the administration over concerns that disclosure
would fuel Republican critics of the administration’s record on border
security.
