U.S.-Mexico panel holds first meeting

 MEXICO CITY – A joint U.S.-Mexico committee met for the first time Wednesday to address border management issues and border violence.

 The committee was created by Presidents Barack Obama and Felipe Calderon in May.

 Mexico has expressed concern about the deaths of migrants during recent incidents involving U.S. Border Patrol officers, and the two countries agreed on the need to “minimize the need for United States and Mexican federal law enforcement officers to resort to lethal force.”

 U.S. authorities say they sometimes are assaulted by migrants and drug traffickers and must defend themselves.

 The committee endorsed expanding coordinated patrols and “expanding existing exchanges of passenger information to detect and detain possible drug and weapons smugglers, and other criminals that travel between the U.S. and Mexico.”

 The statement also pledged support for various projects aimed at improving ports-of-entry and border crossings in several states, and “expand trusted traveler and shipment programs by facilitating enrollment and making them more advantageous and easy to use.” It also supported the establishment of pilot projects for cargo pre-clearance in both countries.