FEWER U.S. FUNDS, RESOURCES ALLOCATED TO STEM DRUG FLOW

AUSTIN -- The federal government has poured millions of dollars into
stopping undocumented workers from crossing in remote border regions,
but land ports lack the resources to prevent the flow of drugs and
guns that fuel violence in Mexico, some experts and critics of U.S.
border security policy said this week.

"It's designed to stop illegal immigration, undocumented workers, not
so much for drugs," said Tony Payan, political science professor at
the University of Texas at El Paso.

Payan and others said drug traffickers use ports of entry to transport
much of their illicit wares, and the U.S. focus on areas between the
ports has ignored some of the root causes of violence that some worry
could spill north. But federal agents said criminals use all routes
available to get their loads into the United States, and the agency
that oversees land ports reported increased drug seizures this year
and last.

"Any way that they can get dope across, they're going to try it," said
Dan Stitt, assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement
Administration in El Paso.

From 2006 to 2008, the budget for the U.S. Border Patrol, which is
responsible for rural territory between the ports of entry, increased
nearly 58 percent. During the same period, the agency that oversees
the nation's sea, air and land ports, U.S. Customs and Border
Protection, saw only an 11 percent bump in its budget.

Border Patrol has hired thousands more agents and installed new
technology along the Rio Grande, and the federal government is
spending billions to build barriers and fencing in the border
hinterlands.

Payan said the discrepancy in funding shows that the government's
focus has been on stopping undocumented workers from coming into the
United States.

The lion's share of cocaine that comes to the country, he said, comes
through border ports.

More than marijuana, methamphetamine or other narcotics, Payan said,
lucrative cocaine is the drug around which the violence in Mexico
revolves. Because the drug is so expensive, cartels don't want to risk
crossing treacherous terrain.

Traffickers, he said, prefer instead to hide the drugs in merchandise
or vehicles that can slip through border ports.

And he said the U.S. does little to control the movement of guns from
the U.S. that wind up in the hands of Mexican cartels and gangs.

"The U.S. has to invest more in high tech for the traffic at ports of
entry," Payan said.

A Government Accountability Office report from November states that
Customs and Border Protection needs about $4 billion in infrastructure
improvements and thousands of additional staff members.

In 2006, according the report, CBP agents prevented some 200,000
illegal crossings and seized about 600,000 pounds of drugs.

But the GAO investigation showed that many times inspections at land
ports were not thorough and some officers did not stop vehicles for
inspection or scrutinize pedestrians closely enough. The GAO also
found that vehicle barriers were lacking at several land crossings.

CBP officers, the GAO report found, were poorly trained, overworked
and suffered low morale.

Monica Weisberg Stewart, chairwoman of the immigration committee of
the Texas Border Coalition, said current border security policies
ignore real problems on the border.

The border coalition, a group of border officials and business
leaders, has sued the federal government over its plans for a border
fence, claiming it is meant to stop workers the U.S. needs but doesn't
address violent crime that plagues the border.

"If we are really looking for protection," said Weisberg Stewart, a
merchant in downtown McAllen, "we don't have protection right now at
our ports of entry."

Roger Maier, a CBP spokesman in El Paso, said officers at ports in
West Texas and New Mexico have seized more drugs and made more arrests
in the past two years.

"CBP officers working at El Paso ports of entry remain focused on the
anti-terror mission, as well as some of our other enforcement
concerns," Maier said in an e-mail.

While CBP officers apprehended more criminals and seized more drugs,
U.S. Border Patrol in the El Paso sector reported drops in arrests and
narcotics confiscations.

T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said
increased security efforts in rural areas might be putting more
pressure on the land ports, but the investments are only beginning to
make up for years of neglect.

The investments might be one factor in reduced illegal immigration
into the U.S., but he said drug flow into the U.S. hasn't abated.

Street prices for drugs, he said, have remained relatively flat,
indicating the demand is not outpacing the supply.

"As long as there is a demand, there will be people looking to fill
that demand by smuggling drugs across the border," Bonner said.

Jack Riley, special agent in charge of the DEA in El Paso, said
traffickers will use every means possible to cross into the U.S.

The key to disrupting the drug flow and preventing the violence in
Juarez from boiling over into El Paso, Riley said, is increasing
communication among law enforcement on both sides of the border.

"They're trying to figure out ways they can exploit whatever
weaknesses we have," Riley said.

Beefing up the border ports, U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said
is the last step in securing the border. He has proposed spending $5
billion in the next five years to hire more agents, remodel facilities
and upgrade technology.

"It's definitely part and parcel to the issue of border security," he
said.