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Border & Immigration

Mexico Replaces Customs Force and Doubles Size

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter
Published August 17, 2009 at 9:54 AM PDT
This story was published more than 14 years ago.
Mexican customs officials graduate from their training program. The Mexican government recently said they have doubled their customs officials at borders.
Mexican Customs in Tijuana
Mexican customs officials graduate from their training program. The Mexican government recently said they have doubled their customs officials at borders.

Mexico has replaced its entire force of customs inspectors in order to catch more contraband that's smuggled into that country. The shake up is part of a bigger effort to root out corruption in Mexican customs and increase vigilance at border crossings.

The move doubles the number of Mexican customs inspectors from 700 to 1,400. Mexican federal officials say the new agents are younger. All are between 18 and 30 years old.

Officials say they're also educated. More than 70 percent have university degrees and that the new batch was chosen after a strict selection process, including psychological and drug tests and a criminal background check.

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Mexican customs is in the midst of rolling out a system to screen all cars headed into Mexico. The main thrust of the new program is to sniff out goods people try to smuggle into the country to avoid paying taxes and to find guns and cash that end up in drug cartels' hands.

Tijuana newspapers report 80 new agents are at work at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa border crossings.

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Border & Immigration Drug WarTijuana
Amy Isackson
Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.
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