“Crime Control” and the Border

The AP reports that The U.S. government is dispatching federal agents to Texas.  The “Violent Crime Impact Team” will go to the border city of Laredo, Attorney General Gonzales told reporters Wednesday at the Justice Department. The team will likely include agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; FBI; and Drug Enforcement Administration.  The El Paso Times ran this brief story about the Team.

Such teams have been deployed before along the southern border.  This effort and others like it bear close watching by those interested in  the interplay between the federal government’s crime control and immigration control measures.

-jc