Question is whether treatment of girl, 13, was appropriate

Redding

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court seemed worried Tuesday about tying the hands of school officials looking for drugs and weapons on campus as they wrestled with the appropriateness of a strip-search of a 13-year-old girl accused of having prescription-strength ibuprofen.

Savana Redding was 13 when Safford, Ariz., Middle School officials, on a tip from another student, ordered her to remove her clothes and shake out her underwear looking for pills. The district bans prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

Her lawyer argued to the Supreme Court that such an “intrusive and traumatic” search would be unconstitutional in every circumstance if school administrators were not directly told the contraband was in her underwear.

“A school needs to have location-specific information” to put a child through such an embarrassing search, lawyer Adam B. Wolf said.

Would it be constitutional if officials were looking for weapons, or drugs like crack, meth or heroin? “Does that make a difference?” Justice Anthony Kennedy asked. No, Wolf replied.

That leaves school administrators with the choice of embarrassing a child through a search or possibly having other children die while in their care, Justice David Souter said. “With those stakes in mind, why isn’t that reasonable?” Souter said.

Wolf said school officials violated the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches. School officials didn’t bother to search her desk or locker, or even question additional students to find out if anyone thought Redding could be hiding drugs in her underwear, he said.

“There needs to be suspicion that the object is under the clothes,” Wolf said.

A 1985 Supreme Court decision that dealt with searching a student’s purse said school officials need only reasonable suspicions, not probable cause. But the court also warned against a search that is “excessively intrusive.”

A schoolmate had accused Redding, then an eighth-grade student, of giving her pills.

Vice Principal Kerry Wilson took Redding to his office to search her backpack. When nothing was found, Redding was taken to a nurse’s office where she says she was ordered to take off her shirt and pants. Redding said they then told her to move her bra to the side and to stretch her underwear waistband, exposing her breasts and pelvic area. No pills were found.

A federal magistrate dismissed the lawsuit Redding and her mother, April, brought, and a federal appeals panel agreed that the search didn’t violate her rights. But in July, a full panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the search was “an invasion of constitutional rights.”

The court also said Wilson could be found personally liable.

The school’s lawyer argued that the courts should not limit school officials’ ability to search out what they think are dangerous items on school grounds. “We’ve got to be able to make decisions,” lawyer Matthew Wright said.

But justices worried that allowing a strip search of school age children might lead to more intrusive searches, such as body cavity searches. “There would be no legal basis in saying that was out of bounds,” Souter said.

Redding, now a 19-year-old college freshman living in her hometown of Safford in rural eastern Arizona, took her first airplane ride to watch the arguments. “It was pretty overwhelming,” she said, standing before a bank of cameras and a few dozen reporters outside the building.

She said she is considering becoming a counselor, which might mean she could end up working in a school.

PHOENIX — The founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is expected to announce his intentions to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona next year.

Chris Simcox is expected to make the announcement Wednesday. He already has a Web site promoting his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

Simcox says on the site he represents conservative values and will always put the United States first.

Neither Simcox nor a McCain spokeswoman responded to calls for comment. McCain will be seeking his fifth term to the Senate.

Simcox’s Web site says the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps patrols the U.S. southern border and reports illegal immigrants to authorities.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event in a West Virginia mall.

Gary Sutton Jr. and Charles Hommema were charged with conspiracy and committing criminal invasion of privacy.

The men were working in an FBI satellite control room at the mall when they positioned a camera on clothes-changing rooms and zoomed in on girls for at least 90 minutes, Marion County prosecutor Pat Wilson said Monday.

Tourists who want to put a hand or foot in each of four states at the Four Corners area are apparently off the mark — by about 2.5 miles.

According to readings by the National Geodetic Survey, the Four Corners marker showing the intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah is about 2.5 miles west of where it should be.

The only place in the United States where four state boundaries come together was first surveyed by the U.S. government in 1868 during the initial survey of Colorado’s southern boundary line.

The intended location was 109 degrees west longitude and 37 degrees north latitude. But, because of surveying errors, the popular tourist spot is a bit off.

The accurate location would be downhill to the east of U.S. 160 in Colorado and northeast of the San Juan River as it flows into New Mexico.

Even 5 1/2 years later, Savana Redding can’t believe she was strip-searched by school officials in pursuit of the equivalent of two Advils.

The 19-year-old hopes a U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday will ease the pain she feels from an event in eighth grade that’s clouded much of her life and set strict guidelines for school administrators.

“I’m never going to be able to forget about this,” says Redding, a college freshman still living in her hometown of Safford in far eastern Arizona. “I’ll think about it constantly, but I don’t think it’ll be as big a burden.”

The nation’s highest court will hear arguments on whether Safford Middle School officials violated the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches. Among the questions to be resolved are whether there were reasonable grounds to believe Redding was hiding pills and, even if there were, whether the pills posed a public health threat serious enough to justify a strip search.

Even if the court finds the search was unconstitutional, it will have to decide whether school officials can be held financially liable — determining whether it should have been clear to them in October 2003 that the search was illegal.

“Strip searches of children produce trauma similar in kind and degree to sexual abuse,” said Adam Wolf, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Redding. “For Savana, she thinks about this event every day, has trust issues with her peers and adults … The search has radically altered her life.”

Initially, a federal magistrate dismissed the lawsuit Savana and her mother brought, and a federal appeals panel agreed 2-1 that the search didn’t violate her rights. But last July, a full panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found otherwise.

“It does not require a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old child is an invasion of constitutional rights,” Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote in the majority opinion. The court also said vice principal Kerry Wilson could be found personally liable.

The district appealed to the Supreme Court.

The search happened after a schoolmate who was found with prescription-strength ibuprofen pills accused Redding of giving them to her. The Safford Unified School District bans prescription and over-the-counter drugs, and Wilson took Savana, a 4.0 honor student, to his office to search her backpack.

Then, he ordered her to go with a secretary to the nurse’s office. “When they asked me to take off my shirt and pants, I was panicky, but I didn’t want them to know,” Redding said. “I just wanted to get out of there.”

They told her to move her bra to the side and to stretch her underwear waistband, exposing her breasts and pelvic area. She did not resist. “I’m one of those kids who does what they’re told,” Redding said.

No pills were found.

“Her mom was irate,” said Wolf. “She feels that her parental rights were taken away and that the school had no business executing the search on her child.”

In a statement, Matthew Wright, the school district’s attorney, declined interviews but suggested a “reflexive action” in media coverage stemming from “a superficial understanding of the facts.”

He wrote that school officials sometimes are “in the untenable position of either facing the threat of lawsuits for their attempts to enforce a drug-free policy or for their laxity in failing to interdict potentially harmful drugs.”

A 1985 Supreme Court decision that dealt with searching a student’s purse said school officials needed only reasonable suspicions, not probable cause. But the court also warned against a search that is “excessively intrusive…”

Traumatized, Redding left her school and graduated from another junior high.

She developed bleeding ulcers and dropped out of Safford High School because of unexcused absences. When the ulcers flared up, Redding had refused to see the nurse — the woman who had searched her.

She left an alternative school without graduating and says she’s now introverted and untrusting, has few friends and prefers staying home. But she’s back in school at Eastern Arizona College after passing an entrance exam despite not having a diploma, plans to major in psychology and wants to “help other people that are like me.”

She hopes the Supreme Court sets clear guidelines for how school administrators “should go about searches like this.”

Safford’s school officials “never apologized to me,” she said. “They think what they did was right.”

But Redding thinks she’ll have won however the court rules. “It’s made such a big ruckus in the media that people are going to know, and people won’t want this to happen in their schools,” she said.

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rejecting a growing number of calls from politicians, said Friday the U.S. military has no plans to send troops to the border with Mexico.

Adm. Michael Mullen, who spoke to reporters after a brief tour of the border in and around El Paso, Texas, said his first trip to the area should not be taken as a sign of any intentions to send the military to the border as a bloody drug cartel war plagues Mexico.

“There are (no plans) that I am aware of or that I would talk about,” Mullen said. “I’m here to learn more about it (the border), specifically because of my responsibilities, and we’ll continue to support just as we have in the past.”

Mullen said his briefings from commanders with the Army’s Joint Task Force North at nearby Fort Bliss and the U.S. Border Patrol were only designed to ensure continued cooperation among authorities.

As violence continues to mount in Mexico’s battle with warring drug cartels — more than 10,670 people have been killed since Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched a government offensive against the powerful drug gangs in 2006 — governors and members of Congress have increasingly called on President Barack Obama to send troops to the southern frontier.

In February, Texas Gov. Rick Perry asked U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for 1,000 troops to augment local efforts along the border.

Last month Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer wrote Defense Secretary Robert Gates asking for 250 National Guard troops to be sent to the Arizona-Mexico border to supplement 150 troops already there as part of a long-standing border assistance program.

Her spokesman, Paul Senseman, said the request was prompted by a combination of Arizona’s problems from immigrant and drug smuggling and Mexico’s war with drug cartels.

Arizona’s senators, John McCain and Jon Kyl, both have urged the deployment of soldiers.

National Guard troops are already at the Arizona border assisting in anti-drug efforts, helping federal agents inspect vehicles at ports of entry.

The situation is similar in New Mexico, where this week National Guard officials also asked for 100 more troops — at a cost of about $5 million — to help with anti-drug missions along the state’s nearly 180-mile border with Mexico.

Capt. Amanda Straub, a New Mexico National Guard spokeswoman, said Friday that Guard officials there don’t want troops to act as law enforcement but just expand a nearly two-decade old anti-drug effort.

As governor, Napolitano in 2006 asked the federal government to pay for sending more troops to the border.

Despite Mullen’s statements Friday, Napolitano said the requests for troops were under consideration.

The reaction to the calls for help from the federal government has been mixed.

During a stop in Nogales, Ariz. Wednesday, Napolitano said the requests were being reviewed.

But hour’s before Napolitano stop in Nogales, her newly appointed “border czar” Alan Bersin said that the posse comitatus act, which limits the ability of military forces, including the National Guard, from performing law enforcement duties inside the United States, has served the country well.

“We should be very cautious to not … misstate the security situation,” Bersin said Wednesday in El Paso shortly after being introduced as Napolitano’s border czar. He noted that there had been no direct spillover of the violence seen in northern Mexico, though cartel-affiliated drug and immigrant traffickers are thought to be responsible for kidnapping and other crimes farther north of the border.

U.S. troops along the border is nothing new. In 2006, then President George W. Bush sent thousands of National Guard troops to the border to help the Border Patrol conduct surveillance and other security operations while that agency bolstered its own ranks.

U.S. Army soldiers from Joint Task Force North, whose commanders briefed Mullen Friday, has also long run anti-drug and other security missions along the Mexican border.

Missouri National Guard member Brian Coleman, 24, keeps watch on the border in this 2006 file photo.

NOGALES – On her first visit to Arizona as Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that requests to return the National Guard to duty along the U.S.-Mexico border are under review.

Arizona’s former governor said President Barack Obama wants to know what missions the guardsmen would perform before making a decision.

Napolitano was asked about restoring the National Guard’s border presence during a news conference announcing a $212 million renovation of the border inspection facility at Nogales and assistance for law enforcement agencies in their efforts to prevent a spillover of drug-cartel violence.

Govs. Rick Perry of Texas and Jan Brewer of Arizona have requested border troops. “The president … really has asked questions particularly of the governor of Texas, who was the first one to request it, saying, `Where would they go, what missions would they perform?”’ Napolitano said. “In other words, don’t just throw something like the National Guard at a place. They have a mission and a job to do.”

The Bush administration sent thousands of National Guard troops to the border to perform support duties in a mission called “Operation Jump Start” that began in 2006 and ended last year. It was intended to free up Border Patrol agents to focus on border security while new agents were hired. But since the troops pulled out, violence among Mexican cartels has exploded.

“When we did Jump Start here, it was to help us build the fence along this portion of the border. So that’s being looked at right now,” Napolitano said. “The National Guard issue, without being state-specific, is under consideration.”

Meanwhile, Arizona’s two Republican senators echoed the call for border troops Wednesday during a Phoenix-area luncheon sponsored by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Sen. John McCain said a National Guard presence on the border is urgently needed. “I don’t envision it for an extended period of time, but right now, we need the Guard on the border because of this violence,” he said.

Sen. Jon Kyl added that the troops proved effective in assisting the Border Patrol and deterring immigrant- and drug-smuggling operations.

Mexico’s government is battling the drug cartels, which are also fighting each other for the most lucrative smuggling routes into the United States. More than 10,650 people have been killed in drug violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon sent out 45,000 troops in 2006 to directly confront the traffickers.

SCOTTSDALE – U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl said Wednesday that they support sending National Guard troops to the nation’s southern border to guard against spillover violence from Mexico’s drug war.

McCain told a crowd at a business luncheon that border violence has reached a point where the government should respond to requests from the governors of Arizona and Texas to station additional Guard troops at the border.

“I don’t envision it for an extended period of time, but right now, we need the Guard on the border because of this violence,” McCain said in response to a question from an Arizona National Guard member.

Govs. Jan Brewer of Arizona and Rick Perry of Texas have asked the federal government to send troops to the border to strengthen security there. Brewer’s office has said her request was prompted by a combination of Arizona’s problems from immigrant and drug smuggling and rising violence in Mexico’s drug war.

Mexico’s government is battling drug cartels at the same time that drug groups are fighting each other for the most lucrative smuggling routes into the United States. More than 10,650 people have been killed in drug violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon sent out 45,000 troops in 2006 to directly confront the traffickers.

Although there is disagreement in law enforcement circles about whether Arizona has already experienced spillover violence from Mexico, immigration agents over the years have noted alarming violence in the immigrant smuggling business, and Phoenix has experienced a rash of kidnappings tied to the drug and immigrant smuggling business.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has plans to send nearly 500 federal agents and support personnel to the border.

After speaking at the luncheon held by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kyl said Guard members did an effective job in the past of assisting federal border authorities and deterring drug and immigrant smuggling operations.

“There is something about the U.S. military that (the smugglers) don’t want to mess with,” Kyl said.

The Bush administration sent thousands of Guard troops to the border to perform support duties so that federal border authorities would be freed up to focus on border security. Bush’s buildup began in 2006 and ended last year.

A much smaller group of Guard troops is already working at certain border points as part of a long-standing program in which National Guard troops assist in anti-drug efforts and help federal agents inspect vehicles at ports of entry.

Study says kids born in U.S. face greater odds

WASHINGTON – Growing numbers of children of illegal immigrants are being born in this country, and they are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty than those with American-born parents, an independent research group says.

The study released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center highlights a growing dilemma in the immigration debate: Illegal immigrants’ children born in the United States are American citizens, yet they struggle in poverty and uncertainty along with parents who fear deportation, toil largely in low-wage jobs and face layoffs in an ailing economy.

The analysis by Pew, a nonpartisan research organization, estimated that 11.9 million illegal immigrants lived in the U.S. as of March 2008. Of those, 8.3 million, or 5.4 percent of the U.S. labor force, worked primarily in lower-paying farm, construction or janitorial work.

Roughly 3 out of 4 of their children – or 4 million – were born in the U.S. In 2003, 2.7 million children of illegal immigrants, or 63 percent, were born in this country.

“One of the most striking features is that it is a population largely made up of young families,” said Jeffrey Passel, an author of the report. “This is a different picture than we usually see of undocumented immigrants – of young (single) men, the day laborers on street corners.”

Children of illegal immigrants hold a delicate place in the U.S.

On the one hand, the Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that these children – whether they were U.S. citizens or not – were entitled to a public school education. California and a few other states also provide in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants.

At the same time, the immigrants and their families are among the poorest people in the U.S., easily exploited by employers and subject to arrest at any time. Children who are U.S. citizens cannot petition for their parents to become legal U.S. residents until they are at least 21.

———

AMONG THE FINDINGS

• One-third of the children of illegal immigrants live in poverty, nearly double the rate for children of U.S.-born parents.

• The 2007 median household income of illegal immigrants was $36,000, compared with $50,000 for U.S.-born residents.

• About 47 percent of illegal immigrant households have children, compared with 21 percent for U.S.-born residents and 35 percent for legal immigrants.

The Associated Press

A federal judge has delayed the trial of former Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi on charges including public corruption, extortion insurance fraud and racketeering until fall.

U.S. District Judge David Bury reset the trial date to Sept. 22 for Renzi and three co-defendants, James Sandlin, Andrew Beardall and Dwayne Lequire.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed at a hearing this week to vacate a June 2 trial date, saying it was unrealistic because of several pending pretrial motions.

It becomes the fifth trial date set since an initial indictment in February 2008 named all but Lequire. He was added in a superseding 44-count indictment. Renzi was a three-term congressmen from Arizona’s 1st District but retired last year.

All four men have pleaded not guilty.

PHOENIX — Luke Air Force Base is in line to get $10.4 million in federal stimulus money, which is earmarked for repairs and improvements which could help the Glendale facility become a training base for the F-35 Lightning II.

“We in the West Valley really believe the F-35 mission will be at Luke. We really truly do, so anything that’s done to keep the base in the very best condition it can be in and keep it functioning at its highest level is a good thing,” Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs said. “Those of us in the West Valley see the F-35 coming in and Luke continuing to be the premier training base that it’s been for so many years.”

Scruggs expects Luke to be that premier base for another 50 to 60 years, at least.

Luke is one of two Air Force bases being considered to be the second-tier training base for the F-35, called the Joint Strike Fighter.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that the Pentagon will end the F-22 fighter jet and White House helicopter programs but would increase production of the Joint Strike Fighter.

Meanwhile, Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field has submitted four projects for stimulus funds totaling $4.5 million.

The intent of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is to stimulate the economy by creating millions of jobs and investing in infrastructure and energy efficiency.

The Department of Defense is looking at improving infrastructure through construction, facility improvements and energy-efficiency projects with the stimulus money.

“All of the projects are identified as ready for implementation,” Rusty Mitchell, Luke’s director of Community Initiatives Team, said of the base’s project list. “All of them have to do with infrastructure repair and improvements.”

In addition to infrastructure, the projects include hospitals, child-development centers and housing for troops and their families.

The 56th Fighter Wing at Luke is home to more than 185 F-16 Fighting Falcons and 27 squadrons, eight of which are F-16 fighter squadrons. The wing graduates more than 400 F-16 pilots and 470 crew chiefs annually.

The Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation for a second time in its battle with the federal government over whether the tribe should have gotten more money for coal on its land.

The high court, in an unanimous opinion Monday, reversed a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The appeals court had said the federal government failed to uphold its trust duties to the Navajo Nation and that the tribe is entitled to damages from the government.

The tribe has alleged that Peabody Energy conspired with the Interior Department to persuade the tribe to accept a lower royalty than other government officials believed the tribe should be paid for coal on its land.

The Navajos claim the government’s breach of trust cost them as much as $600 million in lost coal royalties.

This is the second victory for the federal government in this case. The Supreme Court ruled in 2003 the Interior Department had protected the tribe’s interests under the Indian Mineral Leasing Act.

“Today we hold, once again, that the tribe’s claim for compensation fails,” said Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court. “This matter should now be regarded as closed.”

The case is United States v. Navajo Nation, 07-1410.

CUERNAVACA, Mexico — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Thursday that more inspections of vehicles headed into Mexico and stepped up intelligence gathering on the U.S. side of the border would be part of an effort by both nations to choke off arms traffic into America’s southern neighbor.

“On the Mexican side, more uniform and routine collection of arms tracing done on a real-time basis” will be required, Napolitano told The Associated Press as she flew to an arms trafficking conference in Cuernavaca.

Napolitano and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder met privately with their counterparts, Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora and Interior Minister Fernando Gomez-Mont, as well as other Mexican and U.S. officials to discuss tougher penalties for violating the countries’ gun laws as one way of fighting drug cartels blamed for violence on both sides of the border.

Most of the weapons being used in the Mexican drug wars — 6,290 people died last year and more than 1,000 this year — are smuggled across the border from gun dealers in the United States.

Until recently, the U.S. did not regularly inspect southbound vehicles, and the Mexicans didn’t scan the majority of the cars coming into the country. Facilitating legal trade, not catching gun smugglers, has been the prime directive, Mexican officials have said. Now, the cartel security threat demands a new approach.

The Obama administration has promised a crackdown on illegal U.S. weapons sales that supply the drug cartels.

The Cuernavaca meetings come one day after Napolitano announced plans to spend more than $400 million to upgrade U.S. ports of entry and surveillance technologies to help thwart drugs and arms smuggling along the border.

Napolitano said the U.S. and Mexico are in a better position than ever before to take on this fight.

“Now you have the political will at the highest reaches of the Mexican government to take this on and to be public about it,” she said. “That combined with our own interest in taking on these cartels and the resources that we have give you kind of a one-two punch that we didn’t have at that level before.”

Besides the $400 million, which is part of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package approved by Congress, Napolitano has directed her department to step up its outbound inspections. Customs and Border Protection officials would not provide specific details, but said there were about five outbound inspection operations in the past year.

Two weeks ago Customs officials at the eight railroads between the U.S. and Mexico began scanning rail cars on the way out of the U.S. instead of just on their way in. When U.S. officials see something suspicious in the X-ray, they alert Mexican law enforcement, which intercepts the rail cars in Mexico.

It was as simple as flipping a switch, said Marko Lopez Jr., chief of staff for Customs and Border Protection.

Lopez, who came on recently with the new administration, said he did not know why this wasn’t being done before. “Bottom-line is that we weren’t,” Lopez said. “It’s a huge vulnerability.”

Members of an alleged kidnapping gang are shown with their weapons to the media in Tijuana, Mexico, in this Dec. 18 file photo. Mexico insists the U.S. do more to stop a little-publicized form of border smuggling that is arming the world's most powerful drug cartels with U.S. assault rifles. Cartels have killed more than 1,000 people so far this year south of the border.

MEXICO CITY – Try to bring a refrigerator into Mexico in the back of your pickup, and you are almost certain to get stopped by Mexican customs officials.

Stick a couple of AK-47 rifles in your trunk, and chances are you’ll whiz right through.

Now Mexico is owning up to its leaky border as it launches a new program to monitor vehicles entering the country. The goal is to weigh and photograph southbound cars and trucks, in hopes of snaring more gun smugglers.

As the Obama administration promises a crackdown on the illegal U.S. weapons trade that supplies the drug cartels, Mexico is acknowledging shortcomings on its side of the 2,000-mile border.

“Security concerns require a customs overhaul,” Alfredo Gutierrez Ortiz, who oversees border checkpoints as director of Mexico’s tax collection agency, said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. “Today, passenger vehicles really enter without being inspected.”

Mexico checks only 10 percent of the 230,000 vehicles that cross the border each day, according to the federal Attorney General’s Office. By weighing cars to see if they are unusually heavy, and running license plate numbers through a database of suspicious vehicles, the government hopes to catch more hidden contraband.

The United States has long weighed and checked the license plates of northbound vehicles, but the technology is new to Mexico, which is installing it at all customs checkpoints. It was introduced last week at Matamoros, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, and should be added along Mexico’s border with Guatemala by year’s end.

Such a systematic effort would be a big improvement: Inspections are now mostly determined by lights that randomly flash red or green. Frequent travelers say it is rarely red.

Inside Mexico, strict gun control laws prohibit sales of weapons with calibers higher than a .38 handgun. Even to buy those, citizens must get permission from the Defense Department.

North of the border, however, the cartels simply pay straw buyers to pick up weapons at gun shops, gun shows or flea markets, then resell the arms to smugglers.

The ATF says it has traced up to 95 percent of guns seized at scenes of drug violence in Mexico to U.S. commercial sources. These weapons are increasingly higher-powered, including .50 caliber Barrett rifles and ammunition that can pierce the armor of Mexican soldiers and police.

“A year ago, we never saw those guns going south into Mexico,” said Tom Mangan, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “Now we refer to it as one of the weapons of choice.”

Mexico’s modernization effort coincides with President Obama’s pledge to dispatch nearly 500 more federal agents to the border, along with X-ray machines and drug-sniffing dogs, both to stop the spillover of Mexico’s drug violence and curb gun smuggling. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder will be in Mexico Thursday to reinforce the U.S. commitment in talks with their Mexican counterparts.

Experts are skeptical about their chances of slowing the weapons supply. Gun runners easily smuggle thousands of weapons in small numbers at a time, taking them apart and hiding them in suitcases or even inside televisions and DVD players. These weapons wouldn’t necessarily be detected by weight.

“If the car has no criminal record, and is apparently legal, it will not necessarily be stopped and checked,” said Georgina Sanchez, a gun trafficking expert with the Mexican think-tank Collective for the Analysis of Security and Democracy.

Smugglers also can avoid checkpoints entirely, carrying weapons south along the same desolate corridors that bring drugs and migrants north.

And while cartels get most of their high-caliber assault rifles from the U.S., they are turning to Central America for other military-grade weaponry such as grenades and even the occasional rocket launcher.

“You’re seeing truly military-type guns, like grenade launchers,” Mangan said. “They’re not coming from the U.S. The hand grenades that are being used, you’re looking at that stuff migrating up from Central America.”

Experts also agree that the Mexican military, which is often outgunned by traffickers, has not been a significant source of weapons despite the potential for corrupt soldiers to sell out to the cartels.

Many of the cartels’ grenades and other heavy weapons could be leftovers from Central America’s civil wars, Mangan said.

Mexico has seized more than 2,702 unexploded grenades since the start of President Felipe Calderon’s term in December 2006, compared to 59 during the first two years of the previous administration. Grenades have been traced back to the militaries of many countries, from South Korea to Spain and Israel, Mangan said.

Gutierrez acknowledged that the new system will not be as effective on the southern border, where many communities straddle the frontier and residents regularly bypass official crossings.

“We need to address the breach – everything that doesn’t go through customs – because that’s the biggest problem in the southern border,” he said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on U.S.-Mexico border violence last week in Washington.

WASHINGTON – The time is right for striking at the Mexican drug cartels, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday.

“We have a unique opportunity now in time because of the priority this has taken with the president of Mexico to break up these cartels,” said the former Arizona governor and federal prosecutor.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón has been widely praised by the Obama administration for his courage in taking on the cartels that have ravaged northern Mexico and spread into the U.S.

Napolitano said she hopes an upcoming series of meetings with Mexican officials involving her, President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder will lead to more U.S. interdiction on southbound guns and cash.

But she said the Mexican government will be pressed on what resources it’s going to put into Mexico’s northern territories to fight the cartels.

“Having the president of Mexico take the lead is something new,” she said. “Clearly, putting his administration behind this – that’s a unique opportunity.”

Federal officials say Mexico’s drug cartels have infiltrated as many as 230 U.S. cities.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and panel top Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine introduced legislation Tuesday to provide an additional $550 million to fight drug violence along the border.

By John Yaukey, Deborah Barfield Berry