Torreon, Mexico – Governors along the U.S.-Mexico border agreed Friday to ask their governments to declare the border a strategic zone and seek federal funds for anti-terrorism measures.
The governors also promised to fight the mistreatment of Mexican migrants who live and work in the United States, whether legal or undocumented.
“We recognize the importance of border security,” Enrique Martinez, governor of Mexico’s northern Coahuila state, said at the end of the two-day conference attended by three U.S. and six Mexican governors.
If the federal governments of Mexico and the United States agree to declare the 2,000-mile- long border a “strategic zone” for security, that would free up funds for public security programs, including anti-terrorism measures.
The governors’ resolution also calls for better training for Mexican police and the creation of a database containing the identities of criminal group members, including the Zetas, Mexican soldiers turned drug hit men who are believed to be controlling crime-ridden Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry promised Thursday to allocate an additional $5 million to support law enforcement along the border and said he had increased the number of state troopers in the area.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger attended the meeting for a few hours Thursday. He did not address the gathering in his first official visit to Mexico. Still, he became the focus of attention, with Mexican reporters snapping his picture at every chance.
Earlier this year, Schwarzenegger drew criticism from Mexican officials after he praised U.S. civilian volunteer border patrols that some Mexicans consider racist.
He also outraged some Mexican-American groups by calling for a closed border, a statement he later retracted and blamed on his choppy English.
