Jonah Goldberg On Immigration And The Drug War
05/17/2006
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF

Reader Ryan Kennedy writes:

Jonah Goldberg's latest:

There's a reason why the drug war and illegal immigration have similar scripts, even though the actors reading the lines change.
The overwhelming majority of drugs entering this country cross the U.S.-Mexican border. Indeed, in the 1990s, to the extent that the debate over building a wall along the border got any traction, it stemmed from the war on drugs, not a war on illegal immigration. The steel fence constructed between San Diego and Tijuana - which works quite well, by the way - was built to stop drug traffickers, not gardeners. [What if Mexicans were crack? May 17, 2006 by Jonah Goldberg]

This one is easy to slap-down. Coincidently enough, exactly one year ago, Mark Reed, a former INS senior exec, gave testimony before the Senate: Most jaw-dropping excerpt:

"Almost twenty years ago President Bush declared the War on Drugs. I was present at a high level strategy meeting between representatives of Federal Law Enforcement, DOD, and the State Department regarding the urgency of sealing the Mexican border to stop drug smuggling. When DOD stated that they were capable of detecting and interdicting any intrusion, but could not distinguish between groups of migrants from drug smugglers until interdiction, the dialogue became difficult. When DOD refused to entertain the idea that they should only detain drug smugglers upon interdiction, the meeting was abruptly terminated. The safety valve that illegal immigration provided toward the stability of Mexico seemed to be a more compelling national security priority than drug smuggling." [Testimony of Mark Reed, Border Management Strategies, LLC ]

 

Print Friendly and PDF