The Border: Arizona Alliance's Dubious Achievements in Combating "Transnational Threats"

This is the second of three articles from Border Lines on the Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats – ACTT.

Border Lines: Arizona Alliance's Dubious Achievements in Combating "Transnational Threats":

ACTT is described as “a multi-agency operation in the Sonora-Arizona Corridor (what it calls FA-1) involving over 50 federal, tribal, state, and local law enforcement and public safety organizations.” Its aim is to “deny, degrade, disrupt, and ultimately dismantle criminal organizations and their ability to operate; engage communities to reduce their tolerance of illegal activity.” ...

The failures of the Obama administration’s approach to border control are clearly evident in one of its new border security operations – the Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats (ACTT), launched along the Arizona border in September 2009 as part of the Southwest Border Initiative.

... ACTT was launched largely in response to the rising outcry of border politicians about alleged increases in spillover violence from Mexico. In keeping with escalated threat assessments made by mostly Republican politicians and border sheriffs in Arizona and Texas, the Obama administration itself raised the border security rhetoric a notch by stating its intention to combat “transnational threats” and “transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) on the U.S. side of the border.

Yet after two years ACTT has little to show in the way of achievements in countering the transnational threats and TCOs that DHS says are endangering homeland security."