U.S. PLEDGES TO STEM FLOW OF GUNS TO HELP MEXICO

President Barack Obama on Thursday told Mexican President Felipe
Calderon that the U.S. would stem a flow of weapons across the border
into Mexico. But while Washington has spent more than $30 billion
since the early 1990s to keep illicit goods and illegal immigrants
from entering the U.S., it has had virtually nothing in place to
check -- let alone stop -- what is flowing out. Mexican authorities
have long pressed the U.S. to do more to stop the southbound
trafficking of American-procured weapons, dubbed the "Iron River."
But just how little the U.S. has done in the past is on vivid display
at border crossings in Laredo, Texas, a town perched on the northern
bank of the Rio Grande.

A recent internal government assessment of the gun trade named Laredo
as a top pipeline for Mexican drug cartels. Nearly six million
passenger vehicles, 1.6 million trucks, 3.8 million pedestrians and
nearly 40,000 buses crossed the border in Laredo last year, making it
one of the busiest transit points in the nation.

At Laredo's biggest international bridge, checking vehicles for
Mexico-bound contraband is such a foreign concept that the U.S.
government doesn't even own the six outbound lanes. They belong to
the city. The only infrastructure dedicated to stopping motorists
heading south is a toll gate, so Laredo can collect $3 for every
passing vehicle. It is the same at the nearby crossing for
pedestrians, where the toll is 75 cents. "Our resources and our
equipment are set up to do the northbound examinations," said Eugenio
"Gene" Garza, the Laredo port director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Although Mr. Garza has one of the few permanent teams conducting
outbound checks along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, he doesn't
have staff for round-the-clock examinations, which he said are
crucial to making a difference.

"The key to outbound enforcement is you have to do it 24/7," he said.
"That has been the key. When our officers work it, they get these
seizures. But, you know, we need to be able to do the same
inspections southbound that we do northbound."

Outbound enforcement led to an average of just 183 weapon seizures at
all federal ports along the Southwestern border in each of the past
four years, according to internal U.S. government data seen by The
Wall Street Journal. The assessment estimated that to be less than 1%
of the total number of arms flowing south.

Even after Mr. Obama's administration said last month that it would
boost enforcement, local police are often the ones who do the
checking. That was the case from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. one day last week,
when the nation's outbound enforcement in Laredo boiled down to
Detective Arturo Galvan and another officer, who were aided by a
flashlight and battered orange traffic cones.

Just past sunset, as they tried to spot and stop suspect vehicles
amid streams of southbound cars and pickup trucks, an automated
license-plate scanner flagged the tag of a wanted felon, a man
identified as "armed and dangerous."

The scanner is the only piece of gear focused on vehicles leaving the
U.S., but Laredo police working the bridge don't have access to its
data because it is operated by federal agents. Mr. Galvan learned of
the hit when a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent scampered toward
him from a distant booth on the federal side of the bridge, where 12
lanes of traffic lead into the U.S. The luxury sport-utility vehicle
was already gone.

It would be difficult to imagine a similar scene across the yellow
curb dividing the two sides of Laredo's bridge.

Every vehicle coming into the U.S. passes through a
radiation-detection portal. Every driver faces an agent. Every tour
bus is emptied of passengers and luggage, before it is checked by
dogs or scanned by a huge X-ray machine permanently mounted on a
flatbed truck. Soon, electronic scanners will read travel documents
and the faces of the travelers holding them. Similarly stringent
efforts are apparent at Laredo's port for commercial truck traffic,
known as the World Trade Bridge. There, inbound tractor-trailers roll
into cement buildings constructed to house massive X-ray machines, or
get offloaded by hand in the search for contraband. To boost outbound
enforcement, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano plans to
deploy more license-plate scanners along the border, more temporary
teams and more X-ray machines. But the police in Laredo, who know the
local turf well because they are battling a plague of vehicle thefts,
say only an around-the-clock presence will make a real difference.