No More Car Decals for SENTRI Trusted Traveler Program at US-Mexico Border Jill Replogle - KPBS San Diego
go to original August 30, 2013

Holders of the SENTRI pass that lets you speed through the U.S.-Mexico border will no longer have a decal identifying their cars as SENTRI approved. Some SENTRI holders feared the decals made them easy targets for drug traffickers.

SENTRI users are subject to a vigorous background check and an interview with a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer. In exchange, they get expedited screening when coming across the border into the U.S.

But drug traffickers have used some SENTRI pass holders as unwitting couriers.

“These are people, for example, that have a pattern in crossing the border,” said Alejandra Mier y Teran, executive director of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce, which lobbied CBP to ditch the SENTRI decals.

“So criminals are following these people, they’re learning their patterns, and basically what they were doing is putting drugs under their vehicles with magnets, for example, and then retrieving them when they parked on the U.S. side of the border.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned border crossers about the tactic last summer.

Read the rest at KPBS

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