On weekends, I enjoy listening to NPR. Weekend Edition, Car Talk, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, On The Media (good for keeping up my blood pressure), etc. And this morning, there was a fascinating story about a new development in the illegal alien front. It seems that Mexican drug cartels have found a new way to get their pot across the border — they coerce illegal aliens who are already heading across the border into backpacking it in.
There’s a very flippant solution to the problem, of course: secure the border. No illegal border crossings, no coerced drug smugglers.
But behind that tossed-off wise crack is a serious point. The US – Mexican border — like any crossing point — is a very valuable thing. Any time you have a border or other barrier, you’re going to have people who want to get across it — or get stuff across it. Which means that whoever controls that chokepoint — be it a bridge, a ford, a ferry, a toll booth, a border crossing — can make a very tidy profit off those who want to pass.
Right now, the United States only has nominal control over its southern border. There is no real control over it — but the Mexican drug cartels do control it to enough of an extent that they can intercept would-be border crossers and order them to haul their pot across the border.
I seriously doubt NPR planned it, but their little sob story about illegal aliens being exploited is just yet another argument for securing our border. Because just because the Obama administration doesn’t want to control it doesn’t mean that it will stay uncontrolled — just that we won’t have much say in how it’s regulated.
