US to name 'border czar' to watch Mexican border

[April 15, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is naming a "border czar" to oversee issues related to drug-cartel violence along the U.S.-Mexico border and the hundreds of thousands of people who try to enter the U.S. illegally through the Southwest.

An Obama administration official says Napolitano on Wednesday will name Alan Bersin, a former federal prosecutor, to fill the new post at the Homeland Security Department. The official would speak only on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement expected in El Paso, Texas.

The Obama administration has promised to crack down on border violence and work with Mexican authorities to curb drugs and arms trafficking. Hundreds of federal agents, along with high-tech surveillance gear and drug-sniffing dogs, are being deployed to the Southwest.

Two weeks ago, Napolitano traveled to San Diego, Mexico and Laredo, Texas, to meet with officials about border enforcement and curbing violence spurred by warring Mexican drug cartels. Last year, customs officials apprehended 792,321 people who tried to get into the U.S. through the Southwest border, and immigration officials removed more than 369,000, according to Homeland Security statistics.

Napolitano was scheduled to fly to El Paso and Columbus, N.M., on Wednesday to tour ports of entry. She then was to head to the Mariposa port in Nogales, Ariz. While there, she was to meet with local officials and discuss coordinating efforts to disrupt illegal smuggling and curb illegal immigration.

Later, she was set to join President Barack Obama in Mexico City to meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

In his new capacity at Homeland Security, Bersin will work with international officials and their counterparts in the U.S. and border states.

From 1993 to 1998, Bersin was the federal prosecutor who led the government's crackdown on illegal immigrants at the California-Mexico border. Bersin and Napolitano were both U.S. attorneys during the Clinton administration.

During his final three years, Bersin doubled as the Southwest border representative for the attorney general. Under his watch, the U.S. rolled out Operation Gatekeeper, a massive increase in border enforcement in the San Diego area.

Most recently, Bersin was chairman of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. He also served under California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as education secretary.

"President Obama could not have selected a more qualified, more experienced person to join his administration -- especially when it comes to issues along our southwest border," Schwarzenegger said Tuesday night in a statement.

Earlier, Bersin was the superintendent of San Diego public schools. At the time, Hispanic groups decried the appointment and said Operation Gatekeeper caused a steep increase in deaths by forcing immigrants to attempt treacherous mountain and desert crossings into the United States.

[Associated Press; By EILEEN SULLIVAN]

Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

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