The Associated Press
A big border might need a bigger fence... or better policies.
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Posted 31 weeks 17 hours ago
Is the U.S. losing the drug war on Mexico's border?
The murder Saturday of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar casts a new light on the escalating violence along the Southern border. Aguilar was allegedly run over by drug smugglers as he tried to lay down a spike strip to stop them.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says violence along the border will likely increase this year as the administration bolsters staffing and adds more fencing and technology to secure America's borders against human traffickers, drug smugglers and would-be terrorists.
But is the federal government acting quickly enough, efficiently enough? Would a border fence reduce the violence?
Thoughts
illegal immigration
Submitted on May 1st, 2008 by AnonymousThis article was probably one of the best that I have read concerning illegal immigration and I am a typical Republican.
Conflating Legal and Illegal Immigration
Submitted on January 24th, 2008 by zak822First, my bona fides: I'm a card-carrying yellow dog democrat from the Northeast. I have voted for exactly one Republican in my 59 years. I am a corporate vice-president in a company I helped to found, and I'm African-American.
Mr. Klein, a writer of great skill for whom I have enormous respect, said: "Trying to stop the flow of immigrants when they reach our border is, in sum, a fool's game. the question is whether you stop some immigrants before they leave home."
We can't stop them before they leave home, revised NAFTA or no. The plain truth is that we can't fix Mexico's economic problems. High minded investment plans geared to benefit those who might be prime candidates to illegally immigrate will inevitably founder on the corruption of the oligarchies, who do not want the people to be better off. Nor can the US absorb all of those in Central and South America who believe they can find a better life here.
These are the issues that well-meaning souls like Mr. Klein don't face in their well-intentioned conflation of legal and illegal immigration. We can't fix this by allowing an endless flood of illegal immigrants into the US--it's literally impossible.
The EU example offered begs the question posed here. In the EU, the migrants would be legal. Here, they are not, unless Mr. Klein is implying that we should have an open border policy with Mexico.
And at some point we do have to deal with the fact that these immigrants are breaking the law. As are the industries who hire them. Doesn't that mean anything, who has spent a lot of time railing against the lawbreaking of the Bush administration (with my encouragement and support)?
I won't go into the fact that I see American labor being displaced by illegal immigrant labor in the hotel and construction industries.
Last, the intial question was about losing the drug war along the border. The US is clearly losing every war along the border, drugs, illegal immigration, potential national security threats, just pick one. The border is wide open, the drug cartels and human trafficers are making big money and they will act to protect that money. The border issues are not isolated from each other, they're all tied into the ease with which contraband crosses into the US.