ICE Official In Town To Talk About Violence In Juarez

EL PASO, Texas – A top ranking Washington official visited El PasoWednesday to talk about the violence across the border and what Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE is doing to keep it from spilling over.

Julie Myers, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary for ICE said there are several operations in place to make sure violence in Juarez stays there.

“Certainly in El Paso as in Laredo, there’s just really significant, active, daily violence across the border ,” she said.

Julie Myers with Homeland Security said that’s why Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE is stepping-up its efforts by working with Mexican officials.

“I’m going to Mexico city tomorrow as part of our enhanced partnership in this area as well as our partnership in sharing trade data about Mexican officials,” Myers said.

“Armas Cruzadas” is one joint effort recently announced between U.S. and Mexican officials to share intelligence and disrupt smuggling of weapons.

“We can kind of connect the dots between a seizure in Laredo and a seizure in El Paso to see if they both came from the same source in Kansas City,” she said.

Myersalso saidthe US is prepared to put up a strong fight.

“We are committed to partner with the Mexicans to stop this and bring these cartels down.”

Myers also highlightedthat ICEhas prosecuted more than 3, 800 illegal immigrants for re-entering the U.S. after being deported and increasing worksite enforcement across the U.S.