GAO Border Report Urges Tougher Gun Laws
by Dr. Tony Magana
A government report purporting to examine the policies to prevent gun smuggling from the United States to Mexico comes to political conclusions urging stricter gun control in the face of incomplete and contradictory evidence about border security.
This week the Government Accounting Office(GAO) released the results of their investigation on U.S. efforts to combat arms trafficking to Mexico. They claim that 87 % of firearms seized by Mexican authorities and traced in the last five years originated in the United States. Many of these weapons are obtained they estimate by a mechanism called “straw purchase” where a American citizen without a criminal background, who can clear a background check, goes to a gun show or gun shop to purchase weapons and then illegal transfers the weapons to a Mexican drug trafficking organizations(DTO) who take them across the border to Mexico. Once a firearm has been purchased and transferred illegally into the hands of the DTO the report says that firearms are normally transported across the border by personal or commercial vehicle.
A key issue raised in the GAO report was the lack of coordination between both national and international law enforcement and border security agencies. Although the United States has established the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) to facilitate inter-agency cooperation the GAO found a lack of cooperation between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in developing strategies to confront gun smuggling.
As has been previously chronicled when Homeland Secretary Napolitano asserted that legal gun sales in the U.S. were the major instruments used to supply the Mexican DTOs there are statements in the new GAO release that are self-contradictory. The report specifically states on page 44 “that the ATF was unable to provide data on the number of arms trafficked to Mexico involving “straw purchasers” or unlicensed sellers ( by this I assume to denote legal gun sales between state residents) because the agency does not systemically track this information.”
After surrogates of the Obama administration all but took imputation for the U.S. supplying weapons to the Mexican DTOs earlier this year, a program called the Outbound Inspection Program (OIP) was commenced at border crossing spanning the U.S.-Mexican border. Secretary Napolitano reported initially at the Border Trade Alliance International Conference on April 21, 2009 that the program was confiscating “unbelievable” quantities of weapons. The program cost $95 million and involved shifting many Border Patrol officers and other law enforcement assets and personnel for other areas and duties to the Mexican border. Mexican officials said that 2000 weapons would suspected of being illegally smuggled across border crossings per day so expectations were high at the beginning.
However, a comprehensive examination of the “success” of the OIP between March 12 and April 30 from all the border crossings between the U.S. and Mexico which experiences over 27 million vehicles crossing just the Texas border contradicted Secretary Napolitano’s remarks. Only 51 pieces in total consisting of ammunition, weapons parts, and guns were confiscated.
Meanwhile the local economies of many cities on the Texas and California border with Mexico have suffered negative affects. One of the rare bright areas in the U.S. economy during the recent recession has been trade with Mexico. The OIP program caused waits, sometimes approaching two hours, never before seen on south bound traffic as well as more delay in the north bound traffic with little benefit. The only consequence was a significant decrease in international traffic which has negatively impacted the local economies and the robust growth of the prosperity of Texas.
The most significant issue raised by the report is whether Mexican authorities are substantially executing their responsibility. Very few cases referred to Mexican officials were prosecuted, just 22 out of 73 over the last year. Although the U.S. government has trained almost 400 Mexican law enforcement officials on the operation of eTrace to track weapons it is almost never applied. The assumptions about the actual numbers of firearms smuggled to Mexico and how they arrive there are conjectures based on a small sample of the weapons captured by Mexican authorities that are actually put through eTrace. In fact, the report specifically discusses the concern that there is corruption in the Mexican law enforcement process assigned to enforcing and prosecuting weapons smuggling.
This GAO report will be exploited by those that favor more gun control to to foster demand for revisions in federal and state law to require the tracking of all gun transfers of ownership and demand that all gun sales occur exclusively through licensed dealers.
Many of us familiar with the border have not been in favor of the one dimensional border security plan of the border fence that was passed by the Congress without much forethought to examining how to best spend the money for border security. So far the $70 billion dollar fence project remains mostly incomplete, over budget, and without funds. Over the past four years smugglers of drugs and weapons have built 69 tunnels under the fence and built hundreds of vehicles with movable ladders to scale over the top of the border structure. Enterprising thieves have stolen parts of the fence to sell for scrap metal. In one location, human traffickers even installed a “gate” to which only they had the key.
A recent review noted that the Southern Border Initiative project (SBInet) created by the Bush administration although initially plagued by difficulties with the integration of electronic surveillance systems are now showing promise. Over 4000 apprehensions have occurred recently as a result of the application of advanced technological detecting equipment. Sensors for radiation, facial recognition software, unmanned aerial systems, sophisticated high altitude manned surveillance sorties, and sophisticated financial investigations into Mexican DTO resources are important tools.
The optimum border security will involve the continued development of the SBInet, bolstering of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel, better coordination of the Federal agencies charged with protecting our border and law enforcement of laws already in place, developing better intelligence on Mexican DTOs, and demanding that Mexico not play the blame game but step up to the plate.
Mexico needs to use eTrace on every weapon they capture and establish more accountability in prosecuting weapons smugglers because only then will the facts be known. On the American side those that participate in illegal gun transfers should be vigorously prosecuted and given the maximum punishment under the law. Legislating new gun laws that would be unconstitutional infringements on the legal activities of citizens will not accomplish anything.
Currently McAllen, Texas is rated number one in the country for economic growth and job growth by the Brookings Institute which looked at all the major metropolitan areas of the country. A part of this achievement is due to the legitimate trade and commerce across the international bridges which benefit both Mexico and the United States. The abiding development of technology that scans or detects illegal smuggling activities in a manner that does not impede legal traffic flow is vital technology research that can be implemented at airports, ports, and border crossings. Ultimately our security will depend more on human intelligence and technology then medieval buttresses.
Thanks for reading Contempo Magazine blog which discusses issues for McAllen, the Rio Grande Valley, and America from a conservative Hispanic point of view. Tony Magaña grew up in McAllen Texas, attended Texas A&M University, served as an officer in Army Reserve, and holds a doctorate from Harvard University. The co-founder of Contempo Magazine has participated in Valley business for over 20 years. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and also writes for the American Daily Review. Follow him on twitter http://twitter.com/contempomagazin
