Mexican Border
Violence, Drugs, Guns, and Immigration
Much ado has been made by politicians here and in Mexico about
problems on the border bewteen the U.S. and
Mexico. Unfortunately, assertions
have come from both sides of the border that it's all our
fault. When I hear statements like that, I just don't have
the words to respond. "Indignation" would be perhaps
the most polite way to express my feelings, I think.
The Mexican government, military, and police forces have long
had a reputation for corruption. Often whether you get your
fanny hauled off to jail when you get stopped or whether you
get a favorable verdict at a trial depends on who you know and
how much money you have in your pocket.
High profile individuals (politicians, CEOs, etc) routinely
drive around in Mexico City in bullet proof vehicles because
of the potential for extortion based kidnappings or
assassinations.
The result of all this corruption is that the criminal groups
have been allowed to run pretty well unchecked for a good
while. In recent years, they have become more and more
brazen. Hence the strains of automatic weapons fire heard in
city after city after dark.
So how is any of that our fault? Well, people cite several
areas of concern. Every one of them, with few exceptions, is
complete bunk.
Guns
Argument: "The guns are coming from the U.S."
Okay, prove it. To my knowledge the Mexican government only ever
submits serial numbers for tracing from at most 1 in 4 rifles seized
and will not publish a complete list. Further, out of 25 weapons
submitted, 7 of them are untracable. The statement that 90%
of the weapons entering Mexico come from the U.S. is false. In
testimony before congress, DEA officials stated "90% of tracable
weapons came from the U.S." Note the word "tracable", this does
not mean "all" by any stretch. Remember that only 25% of weapons
siezed by Mexico are listed for tracing and without a complete list,
we cannot assume that those have not been hand picked as guns that
will likely show up under U.S. makers so the statistics cannot be
trusted.
Yet the Mexican government will not furnish a complete list.
Why would this
be an issue for them? Well, for one thing, as noted above, a
good many of them are fully automatic weapons. Fully automatic
weapons are not sold in the U.S. and have not been for over 20
years. If these weapons came from the U.S., they were not full
automatic when they left they shop and have been converted after
the fact (and this can be a dangerous practice as many weapons
are not designed to operate in that mode. Additional stresses
are placed on the mechanism which can make it fail in rather
unpleasant ways if it was not built to withstand that.)
I saw an article recently by an individual who states he
recently spent some time in Mexico and, knowing that he liked
guns, folks were anxious to show off theirs. These were
businessmen, politicians, city officials, law enforcement, and
private citizens... pretty well the whole spectrum. He stated
that a large part of what he saw were fully automatic weapons,
many of these were M16 type but were coppies, not
originals. Several of these did not have serial numbers on
them. It's not that they were oblitterated, they simply never
existed, indicating this was an illegal copy made in another
country.
So where are these guns coming from? Well, speculation is wide
and varied but among the more plausible is that
a good many of them are slipping through the hands of the
Mexican military (either accidentally or deliberately.) As
for the AK-47 type full autos, think about it, those are not
going to be U.S. made no matter how they got into the hands of
the public. So there really is no way they could have come
from the U.S. How did these particular people get them? This
man stated he was routinely told things like they bought it
from their cousin who's friend's uncle got it for him. As to
where that person got it from, they won't talk about it.
If Mexico wants to prove to us that these are coming from the
U.S. then they should publish a full list of serial numbers. Any
gun sold in the U.S., any gun produced in the U.S. is
recorded and tracked. We can tell who made a gun, what shop
they sold it to, and what individual they sold it to. If one
shop or maker shows up more than it should, then that company
can be investigated and penalized if found to have violated
the law. The whole point of requiring gun shops and manufacturers
to record serial number information is so that, when a gun is
is used in a crime and siezed, that there is a good chance of
being able to find out where it came from. So why won't the
Mexican government cooperate on this matter?
That the U.S. is the overwhelming supplier of arms to the
Mexican drug cartels seems a flat out lie. Do some guns from the
U.S. head south? Absolutely, there is no denying that. But
it's just not the volume claimed by politicians. Should these
be dealt with? You bet! Better patrols along the border combined
with a more thorough inspection of vehicles leaving the country
and entering Mexico can seriously hinder smuggling of arms across
the border.
So what do politicians here and in Mexico want to do to stop
the alleged flow of guns? They want to make them illegal to
own many of these in the U.S. So maybe I'm missing something but
how is taking away my rights supposed to keep Mexico's drug
cartels from killing each other? If we want to stop guns from
leaving the U.S. and going into Mexico, better border enforcment
is the answer, not restricting the rights of law abiding
Americans. It's that simple. Make it harder for the guns to
actually cross the border and fewer of them will cross the border.
Border Violence
Lately, the violence from the drug cartels has become an all
out open war. This violence is spilling into the U.S. and
causing serious problems in adjoining states. Kidnappings in
the U.S. are at an all time high. In fact, Phoenix, the area
that I live in, is now the kidnapping capital of the U.S. if
not the world. Most of these are for the purposes of extoring
money out of illegal immigrants because they mistakenly feel
they have no recourse with local law enforcement. (That's
quite wrong. Immigration status won't normally be dealt with
until after the crime is dealt with.) Many kidnapped victims
are taken back into Mexico as well and virtually all suffer
significant physical harm.
These problems threaten the very stability of societies on
this side of the line. Measures have to be taken. I personally
want an additional 5,000 boots on the ground. (1,500 for
Texas and California, and 1,000 each for New Mexico and
Arizona.) We have an organization that is idealy suited to
this. It's called the National Guard. But it's stretched thin
being depoloyed in Iraq. Here's a thought, why not bring the
Guard troops back and have the National Guard do something
novel like guard the nation? Just a thought...
Make no mistake, this is not a problem that will long stay in
Mexico. The violence threatens to tople the very government
of Mexico itself. If that happens, we're in for it. I want to see
defensive measures taken now. Put troops on the border and
declare a 5 mile "no build" zone on this side of the
border. (Allow it to be farmed outside of a 250 yard strip at
the border itself, but not developed.) Existing
developed areas within a city would obviously be exempt from that but
if a building is abandoned and later condemned, maybe it shouldn't
be rebuilt. Yes, this
will hamper Businesses and residents but it's a small price to
pay for guaranteing security.
To try to counter this violence, Mexico has sent thousands of
federal law enforcement and military personell into the Juarez
area, and yet they oppose any U.S. troops on the border and
vehemently oppose any fences. So they're willing to conduct
military operations in and around border towns but don't want
us to use military resources to make sure that the problems
stay South of the border? How does this make any sense?
Drugs
Argument: "It is the insatiable desire of U.S. citizens for illicit
drugs that keeps them flowing North."
Yes, there is an
enormous appetite for drugs in this country, much to the
annoyance of law enforcement offices all over this
country. Yes, without demand there would be no supply. But
lets also remember that the suppliers are very much trying to
create demand. If we cut off the supply, we can make that a
lot harder.
This is a two-way problem. If you stem the tide
of drugs flowing in, you can reduce the number of addicts,
especially among youth, those who have not yet experimented
with these drugs. Making the drugs harder to get has
been at the core of enforcement actions among various law
enforcement agencies forces for
years. Why? Because it works! The problem is that you have to
hit the problem at the border with equal force and this just
has not been done.
To say that Mexico bears no responsibility for stopping the
flow of drugs into this country is ludicrous. For as long as
this has been a problem, it should be
bloody hard to get smuggled goods of any sort across the
border in either direction yet we in the U.S. do not hear
often stories such as
"Mexican drug enforcement agents seized 250 tons of
marajuana destined for the U.S. today..." Why is that?
Well, it does happen, but not very often. The drug cartels are
too well organized and too well embeded with law enforcement
to have their operations seriously disrupted. Why do you think
they called in the military?
So how do we stop the flow of drugs north? Well, we can start
by securing the border. Making it as hard as possible for
contraband to get through undetected is a key step. (Lets also not
forget that most of this flows through desert corridors, not
organized ports of entry.)
Immigration
Argument: "Migrant workers are key to the U.S. economy
because they are willing to do jobs that American workers
will not."
Bull puckey! Much of what are classed as "undesireable
jobs" are such because it's dirty, backbreaking, damned
hard work! Think about it, do you want to stoop over
all day long harvesting lettuce for less than minimum wage?
Many of these migrants don't want to do these jobs
either. They do them in many cases because, being
undocumented, it's the only work they can get. It's quite
natural for someone who can get a better job
to want to get a better job. This applies no
matter your ethnicity or national origin.
Another reason these jobs are undesirable is because they
don't pay very well. In fact, farm laborers often get paid
under the federally mandated minimum wage. But thanks to the
policies of Washington term after term, this largely gets
overlooked with the excuse that it's necessary in order to
allow them to compete in the marketplace. Again, bull puckey!
American farms are among the most productive on the globe, if
not at top of the list. On a level playing field, they'll
out do anything that could be imported. So why can't they?
Because the playing field is not level. Among other
things, we are importing crops that are heavily subsidized by
foreign governments and the U.S. government is taking next to
no action to fight this. That we need illegal immigrants in
order to make farmers competitive is a myth.
Mexico wants to keep immigrants flowing north because many of
them send money south. Illegal immigration is a very
significant part of the Mexican economy. Without those
funds, they would be in far worse shape than they're
in. There also are not enough jobs for these workers in
Mexico. They need emigration to keep their own
unemployment rates down.
Now, in today's economy, Americans are losing their jobs by
the hundreds of thousands. We cannot afford to have Americans
competing with illegal immigrants for scarce jobs. But how do
we prevent this? Better border enforcement is a good
start. Make it hard for people to come north outside of a
recognized port of entry and illegal immigration will drop off
dramatically. (And that includes providing enough funding for
the Coast Guard so they can patrol coastal waters and beach
fronts.)
Immigration Reform
So why is there so much illiegal immigration in the first
place. Well, the poor Mexican economy is a large part of the
reason. Their economy has been in the dump for a very long
time. I've long stated that the ultimate fix for illegal
immigration along our southern border is for the Mexican
government to fix the Mexican economy. Think about it. When
you hear people refer to "illegal immigration", you
don't think of Canadians flooding into the U.S. do you? Why
not? Because Canada's economy and Canada's government
works. (Even if you do disagree with a few policy decisions.)
If people in Mexico and points further south can't feed their
families, they're going to try to come north. But they can't
readily do this by the proper route.
There are two reasons for this. First, there are just way too
many trying to do so. In order to try to protect our economy
and our culture and heritage, there are limits placed on how
many can come in from a given country in any one year. This
also helps to preserve the economy by keeping people from
coming in faster than jobs are created and homes are
built or in other words, from coming in faster than the
economy and society can absorb them. There is also a need to
ensure that those who come here will be contributing members
of society. It is desirable that immigrants be litterate, that
they be educated, and that they have skills that are in demand
in the U.S. It is not intended that this be an exclusive
policy, rather it is intended that such notations are points
in a person's favor. If it were a free-for-all, the Southwest
U.S. would start to look like the Mexican economy. (Oh wait,
in many ways, thanks to the politicians ignoring the issue for
so long, many places already do.)
The second reason for illegal immigration is that even for
those who try to pursue legal paths, the road blocks are
substantial. It can take litterally years to process an
application for immigration. I have a friend and coworker who
came to the U.S. from East Africa on a student Visa. He
graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, while
studying computer science as a hobby, and got himself a good
job doing software development and system administration. His
application for a green card so he could continue working
quite litterally took 10 years. The delays and the beuracracy
were such that he almost got deported, regardless of the fact
that he was a highly educated, valuable, contributing member
of society with absolutely no criminal record whatever. He
pursued every legal avenue open to him and ultimately had to
have considerable help from his employer for whom he is pretty
well invaluable. This needs to change. Personally, I believe
that the numbers being permitted through in a year are too
small and it takes too long to get approved. I'm very much in
favor of reforming this process to help solve this issue but I
am not at all in favor of an open border, I think that
will destroy the Southwest and subsequently America as a
whole.
A big problem with illegal immigration is the damage
immigrants do to the lands and property they traverse. Trash
is left everywhere, fences are pulled down, crops are trampled
and destroyed, livestock scattered and killed, wells destroyed
or poluted, homes broken into, vehicles stolen... It never
stops. Residents along the border feel that they are no longer
in control of their own property. Any investment they make in
their property is seemingly for naught. This is not just
immediately along the border but dozens of miles further
north. Many of these people have lived on their lands for
generations.
I saw a news report about how one man (a
hispanic, no less) is being affected by events related to
this issue who stated that his family had lived on their
particular property since the days of Spanish colonialism,
that his property was deeded to his family directly by the
King of Spain. It very litterally is the land of his inherritance.
Because of these problems, this person–an American
citizen many generations over–and
all these others are at risk of losing these lands. Yet when any
of these idividuals attempt to defend their property, it is
often they and not the immigrants who are
prosecuted. The very government that is supposed to protect
them is criminalizing their attempts to preserve their
property and their livelyhoods. So how do we address this
issue? Again, border enforcement.
Better border security is the only way to prevent the human
tide from overwhelming us (and if Mexico does collapse, this
crossing will not be a wave, it will be a flood we absolutely
cannot accomodate.) We have an obligation to see to it
that those who live along the border can do so safely and that
their lands and property are protected against violation by
those whose first act on entering this country is breaking the
law.
Oh by the way, if litterally hundreds of thousands of illegal
immigrants can cross the border yearly, how many terrorists
can also cross? How many high powered or unconventional
weapons can they bring in to threaten us? How many Americans
could they kill? Illegal immigration is a matter of national
security. It has always been so. Yet many politicians refuse
to see that.
Solutions
So how do we keep weapons from going from the U.S. into
Mexico?
Secure the border!
How do we keep drug money (at least hard currency) from
flowing south?
Secure the border!
How do we keep drugs from flowing north?
Secure the border!
How do we throttle illegal immigration?
Secure the border!
How do we keep the violence from the cartels from flowing
north into the U.S.?
Secure the border!
Many politicians that do acknowledge border
security issues also seem to think that Mexico will handle the
enforcement for us if we just step out of the way. Um, I have
no idea why they think that Mexico is going to act in our best
interests. If we want the border secure, we
have to secure it. So what will it take to get our politicians
to care enough to start properly addressing these problems?
A great many problems that this country faces can be at least
eased by securing the border. Is this a panacea? Hardly, though
it is most deffinitely a necessary first step. But the
politicians in Washington and even some of those states most
seriously affected by this problem don't have the stones to
act on this. Year after year, administration after administration
border security is ignored. Those politicians seeking to support
those who
are breaking our laws need to realize that these actions can
conceivably result in them being put in prison. Persons who are
complicit in allowing another to break the law are themselves
breaking the law. Those who are
not willing to address this issue need to be voted out of
office and we need to keep turning over those posts until we
get a collection of people willing to fight for the rights of
Americans instead of sacrificing those rights to apease
Mexico.
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