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 News from Around the Americas | February 2006 
Bush, Fox Discuss Violence Along US-Mexican Border
 Reuters
| | A Mexican citizen crosses into US territory across the fence that divides both countries, in the city of Tijuana, Mexico, January 2006. (AFP/File/Omar Torres) |
Washington – President Bush named Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as the U.S. point person to work with Mexican officials to clamp down on increasing violence along the U.S.-Mexican border.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan made the announcement after Bush talked by telephone with his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, to discuss immigration and border violence, which has surged in recent months.
“Primarily they talked about the increased border violence and the two leaders talked about the importance of working together to improve our border security and stop the violence,” McClellan told reporters.
The leaders decided to pick a high-level contact within each government to work together on the issue and Bush tapped Chertoff for the role, McClellan said.
Attacks on American border guards jumped more than 100 percent last year to 778 as U.S. agents confronted often heavily armed Mexican smugglers running drugs and illegal immigrants into the country.
Bush's talk with Fox comes after the U.S. envoy to Mexico last month accused the country's government of failing to control crime. Border violence has increased since Fox declared war on drug cartels a year ago. |
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