US, Mexico reach accord on tighter border security, repatriation
MEXICO CITY -- The United States and Mexico agreed yesterday to tighten security along their border and to start sending illegal immigrants caught sneaking across back home by bus or plane.
Tom Ridge, the US homeland security secretary, and Interior Minister Santiago Creel of Mexico signed an accord to step up cooperation on border control and to start repatriating illegals rather than simply dumping them on the Mexican side of the frontier.
"Together we need to reinforce secure and orderly repatriation of migrants to their places of origin," Ridge said at a news conference in Mexico City. "We recognize, from the president on down, that there is no more important homeland security relationship than the one we have with Mexico."
The 2,000-mile border is seen by some as a soft underbelly for the US war on terrorism, and Mexico is also keen to ramp up security to end the attempts to cross the border, in which hundreds of people die of dehydration and from exposure every year.
With the US presidential election looming, the deal also seeks to stem fears among the electorate that White House proposals to legalize millions of undocumented workers could prompt tens of thousands more to pour over the border.
"We are having some discussions about the president's initiative," Ridge's deputy, Asa Hutchinson, said, "and it's going to be rough sailing unless members of Congress and the American public understand that we have the capability of securing our border."
President Bush is proposing to grant work permits to millions of mainly Latin American immigrants under a three-year visa program that his critics see as an attempt to win Hispanic votes in the upcoming election.
Yesterday's accord proposes the deployment of more security personnel along the border and the start of an information campaign to deter would-be migrants, although the details have yet to be worked out.
It paves the way for US border patrols to send arrested illegals home rather than simply dumping them in Mexican territory.
"The ultimate solution is to take them back to the interior, back to their homes, then you have a better chance of them not trying to leave again," Hutchinson told reporters.
