ENGAGING THE NEW MEXICAN ADMINISTRATION ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MEXICO 003305

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/15/2016
TAGS: PREL SMIG MX
SUBJECT: ENGAGING THE NEW MEXICAN ADMINISTRATION ON
IMMIGRATION AND BORDER SECURITY

REF: MEXICO 3297 AND PREVIOUS

Classified By: AMBASSADOR ANTONIO O. GARZA, JR., REASONS; 1.4(B/D)


1. (C) Summary: This is the third in a series of six cables
on transition issues in Mexico. We need to intensify the
effort begun this year to engage Mexico in a constructive
approach to border violence that yields a real-time law
enforcement response to emergencies. Mexico also needs to
improve its own controls along its southern border. Finally,
in the context of immigration reform, it may be time to begin
to urge Mexico to take a more direct role in helping us stop
illegal crossings of our border. End summary.

A Constructive Approach to Border Violence
--------------


2. (U) One of the things lacking in our border security
relationship has been accountability. Criminals are adept at
exploiting the weaknesses that exist where jurisdictions
overlap. When incidents of violence occur along the border
(shootings, rock throwing, fleeing fugitives),both
governments have tended to fall into the trap of mutual
recriminations. We need to create more space for cooperation
and less space for criminals to operate. We have begun to do
this in recent months and should accelerate these efforts
with the new administration.


3. (U) Engagement: Working with Customs and Border
Protection's U.S. Border Patrol and Office of Field
Operations, we have begun carefully documenting incidents of
border violence and sharing this information with the GOM via
diplomatic notes. These notes provide a compelling picture
of frequent assaults on U.S. law enforcement and illegal
immigrants themselves and provide a clear justification for
intensified bilateral law enforcement cooperation. We have
begun working with the locally assigned federal officials of
both governments in two areas, Laredo and Nogales, to develop
protocols to facilitate this kind of cooperation. The focus
is on real-time law enforcement response in the first 30
minutes of an incident of border violence. The concept
includes regular exercises and after-action analysis to make
this cooperation effective and habitual. The action plan
signed March 3 in Brownsville by Secretaries Chertoff and
Abascal provides the mandate for this.


4. (C) Activities:

-- We need a strong push from senior levels on the new
Mexican administration to continue and intensify this effort.
We need to take this effort to other areas of the border (we
are already discussing with the GOM an expansion to San
Diego, Yuma, El Paso, and McAllen) and, over time, need to
expand the range of incidents for which we develop and
exercise protocols. If you have not seen border, you cannot
understand the border. We should invite senior officials of
the incoming administration to tour selected border areas,
perhaps in October, accompanied by senior USG officials
including Secretary Chertoff.

-- Resources permitting, we also need to look at the
possibility of a modest program to fill some of the
logistical and training gaps that are identified in our
exercises (e.g., perhaps providing compatible communications
equipment).

-- Besides including this topic in conversations with
incoming senior officials, we suggest inviting those
officials to observe an exercise so they can see for
themselves that cooperation is possible. Our experience has
been that once officials, even the skeptics, get involved in
the process, they get "hooked" on the idea of how to make the
joint response effective.

-- We also want to propose to the new administration how we
can link this effort to something that should be of immediate
interest to them, such as a joint program to find border
bandits who prey on illegal immigrants.

-- We also plan to reach out early to the new Mexican
Congress to encourage them to participate in border tours of
the sort our Public Affairs Section has successfully
sponsored for Mexican journalists.

-- The OASISS program, under which we turn over evidence on
alien smugglers (and the smugglers) for prosecution in

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Mexico, has been a success. These are cases that the U.S.
Attorney's have declined to prosecute. It is now set to
expand from its beginnings in Arizona and California to New
Mexico and west Texas. An early decision by the new
administration to make it border wide would send a very
positive message on cooperation and be a deterrent to
smugglers, especially the guides who hope to escape
prosecution in the U.S. even if caught.

-- Likewise, we and our colleagues in G/TIP have worked hard
to get Mexico focused on trafficking in persons. Having an
ICE agent here dedicated to this has been immensely helpful.
The Mexican public is now conscious of the problem and would
be receptive to strong joint law enforcement efforts. We
need to send a strong signal of interest early on to our new
counterparts.

-- We would also like to encourage a closer relationship at
the airports. This has been a sensitive issue, especially
following inaccurate and sensational press reporting on U.S.
law enforcement liaison in those airports during a heightened
U.S. state of alert in late 2003. There is much we (CBP and
ICE) can do in terms of liaison and training (e.g., with a
CBP agent on scene to answer questions and offer insights and
ICE training on fraudulent documents or smuggling practices)
that need not involve a U.S. presence visible to the general
public.

Mexico's Southern Border
--------------


5. (C) Mexico's southern border is largely uncontrolled.
Illegal immigrants, dangerous criminals, and contraband move
relatively freely there, much of this traffic headed for the
U.S. Mexico would like to do a better job of controlling
this border, and it is in our interest that they do so. The
principal challenges for Mexico are resources and the
professional capacity of the law enforcement agencies
involved. The resource problem is exacerbated by the need to
meet serious public security problems on the border with the
U.S. and elsewhere in Mexico (e.g., Guerrero and Michoacan).


6. (C) Engagement: While demonstrating an understanding for
the breadth of law enforcement challenges facing Mexico, we
should begin discussing with the new administration the issue
of improving controls along the southern border. In doing
so, we should bear in mind that barring a new influx of
assistance for Mexico, there are limits on what the USG can
do to help, and we must be careful not distract the focus
from own more immediate problems on Mexico's northern border.


7. (C) Activities:

-- We (Secretary Chertoff would be an effective interlocutor
here) should offer intelligence and whatever training we can
target from our existing budget, but we should also encourage
them to make this a priority.

-- Both for the southern border and elsewhere, the GOM should
be encouraged to strengthen its National Institute of
Migration (INM).

Immigration Reform
--------------


8. (C) Finally, we of course do not know what form
immigration reform may take in the U.S., but if, as we hope,
the temporary worker program becomes a reality, we need to
change the tenor of conversations about illegal immigration.
At the most senior levels, it may be time to tell the GOM
that while the U.S. has been remarkably tolerant of Mexico's
refusal to impede illegal border crossers, a successful
temporary worker program requires that Mexico do the needful
(including legal changes if required) to empower its law
enforcement agents to stop those who are violating the
border. This would be a huge step for Mexico but not an
unreasonable request as part of a joint effort to make a
temporary worker program work as intended. We simply cannot
have some Mexican workers lining up at our consulates for
visas while thousands of others simply slip across the
border. The new administration and the new Mexican Congress
must understand that is not a sustainable situation.


9. (C) We should also ask for GOM cooperation in detecting
and preventing fraud and abuse under any immigration reform
program. For example, if immigration reform involves

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cut-off dates for participation by those already in the U.S.
or particular eligibility requirements for temporary workers,
there will surely be a corresponding rise in fraud. We will
want GOM help in pursuing investigations and prosecutions in
Mexico.


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BASSETT