A report of progress. Today President Clinton will announce a report from the Department of Justice detailing its work to bring down crime along the Southwest border. The numbers show that the Administration's strategy is making a difference by making the region a safer place to live and work:

• Crime rates are going down all along the border. According to FBI statistics, since 1992 serious crime is down 30 percent in San Diego; down 5 percent in Nogales, Arizona; down 14 percent in El Paso, Texas; and down 20 percent in Brownsville, Texas.

Working together works. President Clinton's strategy recognizes that when federal, state and local law enforcement work as a team, when we devote the necessary resources and pursue strategies that are effective and tough on criminals, we can make a difference.

1. We have achieved unprecedented cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement:

   * More police. President Clinton's 1994 Crime Bill has funded 172 new police to patrol the streets in our four border communities.
   * More prosecutions. In San Diego, the U.S. Attorney and the District Attorney formed a team that has to a near doubling of the number of felony drug prosecutions in 1995.
   * More cooperation. Operating along the Southwest border, the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Program (OCDETF) is the flagship model for law enforcement cooperation and collaboration, with a focus on breaking up major drug trafficking organizations. It bridges the gap between uniquely federal efforts and state and local law enforcement.

2. More effective prosecution strategies and enhanced penalties are working:

   * The President's 1994 Crime Bill ensures that drug traffickers and criminal aliens now face more certain sanctions and longer prison terms.
   * Criminal alien prosecutions are up. Since January 1995, more than 1,700 criminal alien felons have been arrested and prosecuted on federal felony charges. This is more than were prosecuted during the entire period from 1985-1994.
   * The Department of Justice has made significant efforts to obtain sufficient detention capacity to support the increase in prosecutions along the border.

3. Strengthened border enforcement is targeting criminal aliens:

   * Operations Gatekeeper and Hold the Line are coordinated efforts through which the Administration has deployed new agents, time-saving equipment, state-of-the-art technology and an effective strategy to reclaim the border in San Diego and El Paso.

Taking the next step: Fighting drugs in the region. We are making a dent in the crime problem along our border. Now, President Clinton has challenged General Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, to take the next step in fighting drugs in the region.

1. A Southwest Border Counterdrug Conference. This July, Gen. McCaffrey, Attorney General Reno and other Administration officials will travel to El Paso, Texas, to meet with federal, state, regional and local law enforcement officials to learn about the threats and the initiatives that are coming from along the border. Working groups will focus on legal challenges, cooperation with Mexico, coordination efforts, and intelligence support.

2. Operation Hardline has led to a 125 percent increase in narcotics seizures in commercial cargo along the Southwest border in Fiscal Year 1995, totaling more than 8,000 pounds of cocaine and 19,000 pounds of marijuana.