According to the Office of Budget Management (OMB), the US Border Patrol will receive a budget cut next year of 7%.  The OMB assessment found “a need for improving outcome and cost-effectiveness based measures.”

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The US-Mexico border is being used as an entry point used by international gangs to smuggle Arabs into the US.  Last November, the Mexican consul to Lebanon, Imelda Ortiz Abdala, was arrested on charges that she helped a smuggling ring illegally bring Arabs from Mexico to the US.  A Lebanese café owner in Tijuana, Mexico, Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, was also arrested in connection to the smuggling operation.  US officials suspect Boughader of smuggling 300 Arabs into the US from 1999 to 2002.  Boughader has been previously arrested for smuggling.

Boughader would hand over his clients to Mexican smugglers, who did not ask about the background or motives of the people they were bringing into the US.  This greatly alarms US security officials, who know that the smugglers do not care whether their clients are terrorists or not, they just want to make money.

Mexico’s former security advisor, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, warned both countries in 2001 that Spanish and Islamic terrorist organizations were using Mexico as a refuge before crossing into the US.

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Several Cuban musicians who received Grammy nominations were unable to attend the event held on February 8, 2004, due to visa denials.  Singer Ibrahim Ferrer, a multiple Grammy winner in the past, who won best traditional tropical album, was absent because his visa application was rejected.  Veteran guitarist Manuel Galvan, who won the award for best pop instrumental album for “Mambo Sinuendo”, was also not able to accept his award in person.  Other nominees were percussionist Amadito Valdes and singer Barbarito Torres.

The four artists received letters from the US Interests Section in Havana, which cited Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which states that the President can deny entry to foreigners when their coming to the country is deemed “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”  The Bush administration uses this policy in order to prevent the flow of American dollars through compensation received by the artists, considered to be government employees, from reaching Cuba's coffers.

Cuban artists have been absent from the awards ceremony since 2001, when rules for those seeking entry into the United States were toughened after the September 11 attacks.  45 Cuban musicians planned on attending this year’s Grammys, and all were denied visas.