Guest columnFixing a broken border
Terry Goddard, the former attorney general of Arizona, argues that to curb illegal immigration effectively the federal government must target drug cartels and smugglers, aggressively cutting off funding and freezing assets; Goddard argues that current measures to bolster border defenses are costly and ineffective as cartels will continue to find ways to smuggle drugs and immigrants across the border because it is simply too lucrative a practice
Terry Goddard, former Attorney General of Arizona // Source: queerty.com
In the Republican presidential primary debates, we see “border security” used as a potent political weapon. Every candidate wants to be the toughest in the room and calling your opponent “soft” on border security is a surefire hit.
Border security is so effective because people across the political spectrum agree our southwest border is “broken.” In spite of thousands more Border Patrol agents, hundreds of miles of new fencing, technological gadgets galore, and unmanned aerial drones circling overhead, the smuggling of human beings and drugs, guns, and money continues. Plus, the smuggling cartels have unleashed a horrific wave of violence in Mexico, killing tens of thousands.
While everyone may agree that the border is broken, they disagree about the fix. On one side, advocates of immigration reform argue that we improve border security by legalizing unauthorized immigrants who already live here, and providing adequate legal channels for future immigration. It would take border crossers who seek legitimate work, and for whom jobs exist, out of the flow of unauthorized immigrants, thereby reducing customers for cartel smugglers, reducing their profits, and reducing the size of the human haystack within which a criminal or terrorist could hide.
On the other side, opponents of immigration reform argue that Congress must not act on reform until “the border is secure.” They demand more Border Patrol agents, more fencing, more troops, and more technology before they will try to fix the immigration system. The Obama administration seems to have accepted the “more” position, ramping up spending on border enforcement and deporting record numbers of immigrants as a down payment on immigration reform, someday.
As the Attorney General of Arizona (until January 2nd of this year), I have been part of law enforcement on the southwestern border for most of the past decade. My office confronted border crimes almost daily. From my viewpoint, much of the “secure the border” debate is nonsense. Again and again, symbols trump reality, misinformation buries the truth. Programs like building a bigger, badder wall, or enlisting police in the local enforcement of immigration laws, are sold as ways to make the border more secure, but neither will in the face of increasingly sophisticated cartel smugglers.
I believe a much more effective border defense is possible, but not on the present course. Not by the Administration’s defense-only buildup and not by the huge investment in bricks and mortar proposed by its opponents. A more effective border strategy starts
