Federal Efforts To Stem the Flow of Drugs Across the U.S.-Mexican Border

Control of illegal entry at the United States-Mexico border is basically a task of controlling the movement of people, vehicles, aircraft, boats, and goods. The principal agencies involved in law enforcement at the border are the Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Border forces interdict only a small quantity of the estimated heroin and cocaine entering the United States from Mexico; most seizures are of marijuana. In fiscal year 1976, Customs, INS, and DEA intercepted 6 percent of the heroin, 3 percent of the cocaine, and 13 percent of the marijuana estimated to come from Mexico. Border apprehensions seldom involve high-level traffickers. There is a need for an integrated Federal strategy and comprehensive border control plan. This could best be achieved by the assignment of border control responsibilities to a single agency. The executive branch should provide Congress, along with appropriations requests, an overview of law enforcement along the United State-Mexico border, including an analysis of the budget requests and law enforcement strategies of the various border law enforcement agencies. The Office of Management and Budget, Office of Drug Abuse Policy, and principal border agencies should develop an integrated strategy and comprehensive operational plan for border control which would consider alternatives ranging from the present management structure to single-agency management.