Summary: Despite law enforcement efforts, the flow of drugs along the southwest border continues, and unless border control efforts become more effective, illegal immigration is expected to increase during the next decade. A 1993 study commissioned by the Office of National Drug Control Policy recommended that the Border Patrol try to prevent illegal alien entry rather than catch illegal aliens once they have entered the country. The study suggested using (1) multiple physical barriers in some areas to prevent entry and (2) more highway checkpoints and other measures to prevent drugs and illegal aliens that have entered the United States from leaving border areas. Officials GAO spoke with expressed support for a "prevention strategy," and preliminary results from recent prevention initiatives in San Diego and El Paso are generally encouraging. However, some drug smuggling and illegal immigration seem to have been rerouted from these two sectors to other southwest border areas where enforcement is less effective. In August 1994, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) approved a national strategy to prevent illegal entry that builds on the agency's success in San Diego and El Paso. Although this plan appears encouraging, GAO concludes that it is too early to tell what impact it will eventually have on drug smuggling and illegal immigration along the southwest border.
