New York Times Editorial: Border Control

New York Times Editorial: Border Control
Copyright by tHe New York Times
Published: March 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/opinion/28sat2.html?ref=opinion


The Obama administration has taken sensible steps to keep Mexico’s vicious drug war from spilling over the border. The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, announced that she was sending hundreds more agents and officers to patrol the border region and to work with the authorities in Mexico. She also is bolstering screening technology at border crossings to root out drugs, drug money, guns and violent fugitives.

The moves were encouraging for the realism and proportion they bring to the job of controlling a long and all-too-lawless border. They add resources to curb the deadliest illegal flow — of drugs, guns and cash — and recognize a critical distinction between narco-gangs who mean us harm and economic migrants who don’t.

The administration is, helpfully, stressing the importance of sharing information and resources with Mexico. It is also acknowledging the role of the United States in Mexico’s agonies. Americans, after all, are the addicts whose desperate consumption fuels the drug trade, and the gun merchants whose illegal profiteering has turned feuding cartels into bristling armies. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was right to have explicitly conceded that point this week. It is good news that our government will soon be stepping up screening for guns in trucks and train cars heading south.

This is the kind of targeted crackdown that crime-weary officials along the border have long sought. But there is one more thing to help it succeed: Enact comprehensive immigration reform. Fight the illegal flow not just with more armed guards, but with more visas.

For too long, the United States has suffered from a mind-set that conflates all illegal border crossers into a single criminal class — the all-purpose alien threat. This has led it to spread scarce law-enforcement resources over 2,000 miles of dirt and mountains. The fence is more a political prop than an actual border sealant. Drugs, guns and people still get across. The hunt for violent fugitives and gang members languishes while the authorities chase after every last janitor and farm worker.

Most perversely, the lack of an honest path to jobs in the north dovetails with the business plans of narco-gangs. Many have shifted to human smuggling, easily exploiting frightened immigrants as silent — and highly lucrative — contraband.

The tough-smart strategy, which the Obama administration seems willing to pursue, combines aggressive enforcement against criminals with opportunities for legal status, even citizenship, for economic migrants — the people who would gladly line up to enter lawfully, if such a line existed.