Crime Demands Its Own Set of Answers

Listen to the chant and clamor for securing our borders (well, "border," singular, as it is mostly the one to the south we worry so about). I would say, though, that for all the hue and cry, little more is being done than slapping immigration answers on a crime problem.

Crime deserves it's own answers.

Secure the border, but secure it against crime, not immigration.

Sometimes, the obvious goes unnoticed. Maybe that is what we are doing at our southern border. Maybe -- even though it should be plain and clear how we fight crime -- we do need to take a look at how we do it here on our own soil and ask if that is what we are doing at the border and on the other side of the border.

Good crime fighting requires creation of laws addressing the crimes being committed. If someone is using "human pack mules," make a law specifically against that. Good crime fighting requires you be given the tools to go after the crime. If there is not an adequate fingerprinting system in Mexico, or an NCIC-type of keeping of criminal records, then forge an agreement with the Mexican government to get those tools in place. And, good crime fighting requires a police agency -- something we certainly don't have right down in Mexico.

So, if we are to fight crime at our southern border, let's do these things. First, let's create laws for the specific problems. A law stating that a person -- whether in the U.S. or abroad -- cannot recruit another person to bring drugs into the U.S. would be a good first step. Such a law should empower the immigrant to turn around and finger the drug lord when the drug lord forces him to smuggle drugs.

And, how about a law specifying that raising drugs in foreign lands that end up being distributed in the U.S. is a crime? And, how about a law specifying that those in foreign lands who direct, coordinate and supervise the flow of drugs into the U.S. are guilty of U.S. felony?  That is not just saying directing drug trafficking is illegal, it is specifying that doing it from outside the U.S. is a crime, thus giving us specific authority to go outside the U.S. to get them. 

In addition to getting laws in place, forge international agreements allowing us to send our officers, our investigators, our police into other nations to find and extradite the criminals for prosecution in the U.S.?

We are failing in the drug war from Mexico. We will continue to fail if we see it as no more than an immigration issue. Crime is its own problem. You cannot slap immigration answers on crime problems and expect to have adequately addressed the problem.