Federal officials tout binational cooperation along border

Top federal law enforcement officials from the U.S. and Mexico shared a message of strengthening ties between the two governments and the broader community during a ceremony Friday at Pima Community College.

“It’s an opportunity to show partnership with Mexico’s federal police and the work that we want to do in the community, to build trust and cooperation,” said Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske.

Speaking before more than 250 people at Pima’s Center for the Arts Proscenium Theatre, most of whom were in uniforms representing agencies from both sides of the border, Kerlikowske noted that safety and cooperation were key concerns to CBP and the Mexican Federal Police.

U.S. and Mexican officials have been working on that partnership for some time, with meetings held in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City. Kerlikowske and Mexican Federal Police Commissioner Enrique Galindo Ceballos decided it was time to take their “message of cooperation” to the border, Kerlikowske said.

Traveling to sister cities in both countries with the 14-piece Mexican Federal Police Mariachi band and the 50-piece Mexican Federal Police Woodwind Symphony, they visited McAllen, Texas, and Reynosa, Tamaulipas, last month.

On Thursday, the event moved to Nogales, Sonora. At the end of the month they’ll visit Tijuana and San Diego.

Sharing this message with the community allows both governments the opportunity to show their renewed cooperation, said Damián Canales, chief commissioner for intelligence at the Mexican Federal Police, who spoke on behalf of Galindo Ceballos.

While the two governments have been working together on border issues for some time, he feels there’s now a stronger connection between the two agencies.

“In Mexico, we understand that if each of us only works on our side, the problems will just be harder to solve,” he said.

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Their partnership is not just about border security, but also facilitating travel and trade, whether it’s in produce or manufacturing, Kerlikowske said, adding there’s also an emphasis to address the issue of use-of-force incidents involving federal agents.

“Customs and Border Protection is much more transparent and open to the public, and they’re much more responsive when it comes to complaints about use of force and telling the public what actually happened,” he said.

CBP is addressing the concerns of Mexico’s Foreign Ministry regarding Border Patrol shootings, Kerlikowske said, adding that the concerns have been reduced. Violence is down not only because of increased transparency, but less use of lethal force.

To accomplish binational safety, there’s an increased focus on both sides of the border working together on joint patrols and using dual communication.

“They’re patrolling on their side of the border; we’re patrolling on ours, but we can exchange information through a new communications system, so that we can speak directly to them,” Kerlikowske said. “They’re seeing things; we’re seeing things. We need to be able to interdict on either side.”

The vast majority of people now entering the country illegally are not from Mexico, but from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, Kerlikowske said.

He’ll soon be traveling to those countries to meet with their government officials and CBP liaisons to talk about what can be done, together, to reduce the flow of people attempting the dangerous migration to the United States.

“If those three Central American countries had better safety, better security, a better economy, better opportunities for education — that would be one of the better ways of reducing the number of people that want to come to the United States,” he said.