This afternoon Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Alan Bersin, a former Justice Department official, as the “border czar.” This newly created post is responsible for helping to deal with the drug cartel violence occurring along the U.S.-Mexico border.
During the Clinton administration, Bersin was the attorney general’s Southwest border representative in his final three years at the Justice Department. Under his watch, the U.S. implemented Operation Gatekeeper, a massive increase in border enforcement in the San Diego area. This program discouraged illegal crossings there, but migrants and smugglers responded by choosing less populated, and more dangerous routes to the east.
Bersin also served as the superintendent of San Diego public schools. At the time, Hispanic groups criticized the appointment explaining Operation Gatekeeper caused a steep increase in deaths by forcing immigrants to try to cross via unsafe mountain and desert routes into the United States.
This announcement came on the eve of President Obama’s first visit to Mexico since being sworn into office.
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