Officials Discuss Plan To Search Southbound Bridge Traffic

EL PASO, Texas — Authorities say there is one sure thing in the ongoing drug war: as the drugs flow north into this country, guns and money head south to Mexico.

Now the U.S. is talking about doing something about it.

At most international bridges, northbound vehicles are searched often, while those southbound are hardly searched at all. But that could change soon.

“They don’t stop you, they don’t search you … Just go ahead, go ahead, go ahead!” said El Paso engineer Miguel Gonzalez. Gonzalez crosses the Bridge of the Americas several times a week to work in Juarez.

Although it may be an inconvenience, he is fine with the possibility of being searched going into Mexico.

“If they do have the infrastructure, the real infrastructure, I’m all for it,” Gonzalez said.

During “ABC-7 Xtra” on Sunday night, Congressman Silvestre Reyes and Mayor John Cook talked about Reyes’ $5 billion bill to bulk up the ports of entry.

One of the major parts of Reyes’ new PORTS bill, an acronym for “Putting Our Resources Toward Security,” would be to build the proper infrastructure at our bridges to check southbound vehicles going into Mexico.

“Right now, we simply don’t have the infrastructure to support that…When we pass the ports act, we will remodel the land ports of entry so that there’s a place and the proper infrastructure for those kinds of inspections,” Reyes said.

Cook said something has to be done to break up the vicious circle of drugs flowing north and guns and money going south. He pointed out that southbound checkpoints without the proper infrastructure would be a mistake. Even now, during the afternoon trucks entering Mexico back up all the way to Interstate 10.