March 2, 1998, Washington -- U.S. Border Control Vice President Lyle Ryter expressed both shock and outrage in reviewing the annual certification process of countries with regard to their efforts to control the flow of drugs.
Countries that are not certified receive no foreign aid from the United States for the period of decertification. The procedure, conducted by the Department of State, in cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), became quite politicized last year when the Clinton Administration chose to certify Mexico despite the obvious lack of progress in controlling the flow of drugs through their country into the United States.
„That the Clinton Administration would again try to certify Mexico demonstrates how meaningless the certification process has become. Even Clinton‚s own Drug Enforcement Agency has stated that Œthe government of this country [Mexico] has not accomplished its counternarcotics goal or succeeded in cooperation with the United States government.‚‰
„Right now,‰ continues Ryter, „sixty percent (60%) of the cocaine on the streets of the United States flow from Mexico. According to General Barry McCaffrey, the President‚s Drug Czar, Illegal aliens from Mexico currently control eighty percent (80%) of the drug trafficking in Los Angeles.
„Last year, the Director of Mexico‚s drug enforcement agency was arrested and charged with protecting one of the largest drug traffickers in the country. In fact, they have had to reconstitute their drug enforcement agency three times since 1989!‰
How much more evidence does the State Department need -- a Mexican planeload of drugs, flown by the head of their DEA, crashing into their office building? I mean, this is ridiculous.‰ said Ryter.
„Mexico currently receives $78 million per year in US taxpayer moneys to counter drugs in Mexico. The United States currently is spending $800 million in Department of Defense appropriated funds to protect US citizens from the drugs which are being delivered into this country via Mexico. American taxpayers should be outraged by these expenditures.‰
„Mexico is doing little or nothing to staunch the flow of drugs into the United States. Mexico's drug business has become so profitable that a war has broken out among their drug cartels for this lucrative market with many killings in and around the city of Juarez, just across the border from El Paso which even the Mexican police acknowledge cannot be contained.‰
„Neither the DEA nor the State Department can offer any tangible evidence for their decision to recertify Mexico. In fact, in this year‚s analysis on Mexico‚s efforts, the DEA concluded, Œnone of the changes have produced significant results.‚‰
The DEA report continues stating that „None [of Mexico‚s anti-drug efforts] have resulted in the arrest of the leadership or the dismantlement of any of the well known organized criminal groups operating out of Mexico‰
„The fact that our State Department supports recertification for Mexico‚s anti-drug efforts is sufficient reason to discard those suggestions that this agency should replace the INS in controlling our borders in any capacity.‰
„Last year the Congress tried to send a message by debating a resolution disagreeing with the certification of Mexico. But certain interests lobbied very hard and succeeded in watering down the Congress‚ efforts to a meaningless, almost soundless, gesture. As a result, thousands of Americans died from drugs that continued to flow into this country from Mexico.‰
„Hopefully, Congress will have enough backbone this year to send a message to the Government of Mexico that says the free ride is over. No more aid, no more cooperation, no more endless purposeless meetings between Clinton and Zedillo until you prove that you are serious about halting the trade in people and drugs coming across our shared border.‰
"While we are delighted that Senators Coverdell and Feinstein, Helms and Hutchinson have come forward with legislation disapproving of the President's recertification of Mexico (S.J.Res.42), we wish that they had not introduced a second resolution (S.J.Res.43) that gives President Clinton a loophole to rescind the cutoff of foreign aid to Mexico if it is in our "vital national interests" to do so."
President Clinton has been far too generous and patient with Mexico and it is well past the time that America use the stick instead of the carrot on our neighbor to the south.
Click here for the text of the floor remarks concerning decertification of Mexico.
SOURCE: U.S. Border Control
Contact: Lyle Ryter of U.S. Border Control
Telephone: 202-661-4707; Fax: 202-478-0254
Email: ryter@usbc.org
WEBSITE: http://www.usbc.org