MERCHANTS OF CORRUPTION

Drug Cartels' Increasing Role in U.S. Corruption Requires a
Clearheaded U.S. Response

Crime waves, like hurricanes, periodically slam American cities.
Houston suffered a sharp rise in murders during the first half of
this year; Washington, D.C., was assaulted by brazen
influence-selling. Now Brownsville and other cities along the Mexican
border are being pummeled by corruption. Border guards, city
agencies, even judges have been caught taking bribes. The crime wave
shows that American officials are no more immune from the cancer of
corruption than any others.

Federal officials say border bribery cases began rising noticeably
several years ago. In Brownsville alone, police snared a municipal
court clerk fixing traffic tickets in the middle of a busy police
station, a code inspector who allegedly let used car lots operate
without building inspections and a county commissioner who accepted
$10,000 in kickbacks in exchange for a jail-building contract. Texas
isn't alone in seeing more corruption: two border guards were
convicted in California for freeing thousands of illegal immigrants
in exchange for cash.

Of all nonfatal crimes, corruption is particularly troubling. It can
undermine whole societies, including our own, if those in power fail
to recognize and then crush the real source. That's why it's crucial
that law enforcement, government officials and the public grasp the
role of regional and political events in its spread. In the border
area, several experts say, much corruption is associated with Mexican
drug cartels and the tightening of border security.

The framework for borderland corruption has existed for centuries.
Distant from capital cities and serving as bridges between different
cultures, borderlands everywhere often develop less lawful, more
unregulated ways of doing business. And in Mexico, until recently led
by autocratic governments, citizens historically had to "buy" access
to public services by slipping cash to officials.

These traditions still linger in cities such as Brownsville, said
border historian Anthony Knopp. Yet, Knopp said, "That certainly
doesn't account for the spike in corruption."

How could it, after all: Though Brownsville's officials - and its
citizens - might seem more corrupt, Mexico's proximity hasn't
changed. What has changed measurably is the clout of Mexican drug
cartels. "I think a sheriff here on the border has two choices when
he gets elected or tries to run for office," Knopp asserted. "He
either is likely to take some money, or get shot, or look the other
way from the people who are connected with if not part of the major cartels."

With enormous budgets and their own militias, the cartels have a
stranglehold on Mexico. Their struggles for ascendancy and cash are
terrorizing several Mexican cities, posing an almost insurmountable
challenge for new President Felipe Calderon.

Ordinary Mexicans bear some responsibility. For too long, they saw
drug trafficking as a U.S. problem, fed by American vices. They
didn't see, until too late, how tolerating or accepting traffickers'
bribes spawned the devastating violence now bleeding their cities.

Organized crime also has fed on recent immigration policies. In the
past five years, a surge in border personnel has slowed illegal
crossings. But it's also prodded human traffickers to pay higher
bribes, said David Shirk of San Diego's Transborder Institute. The
many new guards also may not be as well-trained or supervised as
those before them, which can translate to ethical weakness.

The threat all these transborder criminals pose to American cities is
frightening, indeed.

Aggressively strengthening public institutions by demanding
transparency and accountability on both sides of the border is one
weapon. So is the federal task force formed when Brownsville first
started seeing corruption increase.

Maybe most powerful of all, though, is the understanding of how
corruption travels. It piggybacks onto weak institutions and feeds on
specific economic and political conditions. It spreads like a plague
in communities where wrongdoing visibly goes unpunished. From Mexico
to Houston to Washington, no culture is immune from its own
weaknesses and temptations.