[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 CERTIFICATION, AS SEEN FROM THE BORDER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LEE H. HAMILTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 22, 1998

  Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I commend to my colleagues' attention the 
excellent article written by our colleague from Texas, Silvestre Reyes. 
We all have something to learn from Mr. Reyes--a Border Patrol Agent of 
26 years, including 11 years as a Sector chief in McAllen and El Paso.

 [From the Home Index Search Archives, Washington Post, Apr. 20, 1998]

                      An Ally in the War on Drugs

                          (By Silvestre Reyes)

       I live on our nation's border with Mexico. I have firsthand 
     knowledge and experience of our nation's ``war on drugs.'' I 
     spent more than 26 years of my life on the front line of that 
     ``war'' as a Border Patrol agent, enforcing our nation's 
     immigration and narcotics laws. For 11 of those years, I was 
     the Border Patrol sector chief in McAllen, Tex., and El Paso.
       The most important lesson I learned while working on the 
     border is that to be successful in our fight against drug 
     trafficking, we must help Mexico reform its police apparatus 
     as well as its legal and judicial systems. If the United 
     States and Mexico are to stop drug smuggling, we must 
     cooperate and work in an environment of mutual understanding. 
     Because about 60 percent of the cocaine on the streets of the 
     United States passes through Mexico, its cooperation is vital 
     to any counter-drug effort. Merely criticizing Mexico 
     achieves nothing.
       The United States consumes more than $5 billion a year in 
     illegal drugs. We should own up to our responsibility and 
     stop trying to blame others. Indeed, a recent survey found 
     that 46 percent of Americans believe that Americans are 
     responsible for the problem of illegal drugs in the United 
     States. Interestingly, 50 percent of those same Americans 
     believe that certification should be made tougher. They 
     believe that we as a country are responsible for creating the 
     demand, but we need to punish foreign nations for our 
     problems. We should not continue to use the certification 
     process as a forum to vent the frustrations we as a nation 
     feel about the devastating impact of drugs on our 
     communities.
       The Mexican government bristles at the annual certification 
     process, viewing it as an affront to their nation and an 
     infringement on their sovereignty. The Mexican ambassador to 
     the United States, Jesus Reyes-Heroles, refers to the 
     certification process as ``the most stressful period each 
     year in the relationship between the two nations. This stress 
     does not, in our view, enhance the cooperation essential to 
     defeat this mutual scourge.''
       Our nation shares a 2,000-mile border with Mexico, but we 
     along the border share more than that with our neighbors to 
     the south. Not only have our economies long been 
     interdependent, but our cultures also are tied by more than 
     400 years of history.
       Since the implementation of NAFTA in 1993, communities on 
     both sides of the border have become an integral part of the 
     hemispheric trade success of North America with Latin 
     America. American exports to Mexico increased by 126 percent 
     from 1990 to 1996. The trade pact not only makes economic 
     sense, it is also a logical evolution of international trade 
     and commerce. It is a vibrant success story in the making, 
     but it can be jeopardized by the process of certification and 
     the contentious issues associated with it each year.
       Mexico's efforts in this ``war on drugs'' are notable and 
     should not be overlooked. In the past year, Mexico has 
     enacted money-laundering legislation and created new 
     investigative units to help root out official corruption. The 
     Mexicans also have begun to rebuild their anti-drug 
     institutions under the leadership of Attorney General Jorge 
     Madrazo.
       The Mexican government also has improved its efforts 
     relating to extradition and has signed a bilateral 
     extradition protocol. Mexico City already has approved the 
     extradition of 27 fugitives from U.S. justice. Of the 27, 13 
     fugitives were extradited (seven for drug crimes) while the 
     remaining 14 have appealed their extraditions.
       We must continue to build on this kind of progress. The 
     United States policy of judging the drug-fighting efforts of 
     other countries is counterproductive and must be changed if 
     we are to have any real impact on international drug 
     trafficking. We must develop a process in which we engage our 
     partners through cooperation rather than confrontation.
       The writer, a Democrat, is a U.S. Representative from 
     Texas.



     

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