ILLEGAL DRUG MONEY THREATENS INTEGRITY OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

Americans' insatiable appetite for illegal drugs and Mexican drug
lords' enthusiasm for supplying them have produced a dangerous level
of corruption along our southern border.

Drug lords are bribing federal agents for information, paying them to
wave smugglers through checkpoints, even hiring them to smuggle drugs,
according to a year-long study by the General Accounting Office.

U.S. officials note that only 28 employees out of the 9,600 agents in
the Immigration and Naturalization Service and U.S. Customs Service
were prosecuted for corruption from 1992 to 1997, but the figure is
hardly comforting.

What about those who are suspected of being in bed with the drug
lords, but not yet prosecuted? What about those corrupted but not yet
suspected?

The INS, the Customs Service and the Border Patrol do a tremendous job
in safeguarding our borders. But they are ridiculously understaffed
and underequipped. Their task has become even more difficult as a
result of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has produced
greater traffic passing through U.S. border checkpoints.

Corruption spreads like cancer, whether it is in Mexico or the United
States.

The huge amount of untraceable cash involved in illegal drugs --
Americans buying, Mexicans selling -- poses a terrible threat to the
integrity of U.S. law enforcement and the judiciary, as it does south
of the border.

The federal government must put more personnel, equipment and other
resources to work maintaining border security and weeding out corrupt
agents.

President Clinton has disregarded the needs of the INS, Customs
Service and Border Patrol, this year turning down a request by the
Justice Department and INS for money to hire 1,000 additional agents.

"The first line of defense is customs, and they are insufficiently
staffed and underequipped," says U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio.

Rodriguez has asked for 2,000 additional customs inspectors and agents
and $1.2 billion over seven years to upgrade the computer and
automation system that processes commercial traffic at points of entry.

Clearly, not enough is being spent to plug the leaks in the nation's
borders. It can no longer be ignored. It is a federal responsibility,
and it is time for President Clinton to make security of our borders a
top priority.