Security on the border

How have the drug trade and a dramatic growth in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s ranks impacted communities along the border with Mexico?

For insight, “Reveal” host Al Letson turns to CIR’s G.W. Schulz in El Paso, Texas, one of the nation’s busiest border crossings. Schulz has been reporting on the border along with fellow CIR reporter Andrew Becker for years, unveiling the real implications of increasingly heightened security. You can read their investigations in the CIR series Crossing the Line.

One of the biggest surprises that Schulz encountered in his reporting on the Border Patrol: the sheer volume of drug busts by the agency – and the unintended consequences they bring to border communities.

His earlier investigation with Becker revealed how minor drug arrests at a border checkpoint in Eagle Pass, Texas, have put a severe financial strain on the county, highlighting the tough monetary consequences of the U.S. government’s strategy for curbing the nation’s supply of drugs and illegal immigration.

You can find out just how many drugs were seized at the Border Patrol checkpoint near Eagle Pass between 2005 and 2011 in CIR’s interactive map.

As you’ll see from the map, the Border Patrol caught at least 8,800 pounds of heroin during that time period. But what wasn’t caught at the border ends up on U.S. streets. And just how does that happen? A yearlong investigation by WBEZ and the Chicago Reader breaks down the big business of drugs from El Paso to Chicago’s south and west sides, to the suburbs and across the Midwest. Listen to that segment here.

Featured image: CIR’s G.W. Schulz, left, and “Reveal” host Al Letson examine the drug trade and its consequences on one of the nation’s busiest border crossings. Credit: Ben Adair