Drug-sniffing dogs are sent out at random into the stream of cars waiting at the border crossings to discourage cars from lining up at certain entry gates. But the smugglers always are a step ahead. But if you really want to make sure, and there's no margin for error, it can certainly help. Like anywhere else in the country, the drug trade is driven by money, and the huge sums offered by the drug cartels are corrupting not just officials but the business life of communities along the border. From El Paso to Brownsville, the border is the sluggish Rio Grande, in many places little more than an ankle-deep ditch.
Residents regularly visit families on both sides.
The urban bridge crossings in San Ysidro, El Paso, and Laredo look more like toll plazas on the New Jersey Turnpike than an impermeable international boundary. Historically, the question of corruption has been around as long as there have been lines drawn on maps and people with badges assigned to police them. And the border communities have gotten very good at moving goods, legal and illegal, while at the same time negotiating the arcane import rules and dodging the cops. In El Paso, for example, the largest employment sector in the economy is in foreign trade, which accounts for nearly one fourth of all jobs in the region. To many, the drug trade is just another business.