http://www.statepress.com/issues/2006/1 ... ons/698731

Opinions: Stopping trafficking along border takes more than a fence
by Seth Pate
published on Wednesday, November 8, 2006
In response to my article last week on the Minutemen, Jim Gilchrist, one of the project's founders, upbraided me for not giving any focus to the drug and human smuggling that goes on along the border. I thought that was a fair criticism, so here we are.
On Oct. 30, Phoenix police busted a human-trafficking ring that had been operating for generations. After 40 arrests, that's one cartel that won't be smuggling anyone else. But you have to wonder whether these things are like cockroaches - for every one you see, there's plenty others that you don't.
The drug-trafficking trade is almost certainly even more active; drugs are easier to procure, easier to smuggle and more in demand. Phoenix, Tucson and Arizona's border counties have been federally registered High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas since 1990.
The demand is the problem; fighting that demand is the only solution that's going to fix things for good.
That's not to say that we can't improve the situation by enforcement.
Last year, Arizona passed a law that allowed local authorities to participate in enforcing federal immigration laws; formerly, local police had to report the issue to the INS (or another federal body) and wait for the overworked, undermanned agency to take care of things.
Peace officers now have a freer hand in fighting the cartels.
Even the Minuteman Project helps the situation. According to an internal Drug Enforcement Administration report uncovered by KVOA in Tucson, the presence of so many volunteer observers on the border in April and May 2005 deterred drug smuggling.
The problem is that the traffickers, though they may be swarthy and mustachioed, aren't idiots. They lay low until things calm down - until the Minutemen go home, or until the American election is over and the gringos go back to watching "Dancing with the Stars."
So much debate centers around the whole fence issue. Bush's approval of a bill that creates a 700-mile fence, a bit more than one-third of the border's full length, is seen by some as a half-measure.
A recent poll by FOX News puts 51 percent of Americans in favor of a 2,000-mile long fence.
No one really knows how much it would cost, so I'll pull out all my MAT 114 skills and crunch some numbers: The only "modern" fence we have on the border now is a 14-mile triple-layered fence with light towers along the San Diego border. That puppy cost $5.5 million a mile to build.
That comes out to $11 billion for a fence all along the border, excluding staffing costs and maintenance.
If my math isn't good enough, you can always just use Washington algebra. Multiply whatever the politician tells you it's going to cost by three.
We can say that $11 billion is an acceptable cost for national security. The border is a huge issue, not only for the Southwest, but for the country as a whole.
Besides, Vicente Fox keeps speaking out against the fence, so it has to be a decent idea.
The problem is, with or without a Great Wall of Arizona, the traffickers will find a way across the border. They'll tunnel, they'll scale walls, they'll fake IDs or passports to get across checkpoints.
Even if you were to man every mile of that stretch with National Guardsmen, the traffickers would load their cargo into boats and come across the Gulf of Mexico.
Enforcement helps. But the U.S., greatest of all capitalist countries, ought to understand the laws of supply and demand. The drug- and human-trafficking trades pay better than many other occupations in Mexico, and as long as there are buyers in the U.S., the criminals will find a way to give them what they want.
We ought to fight this "war" on two fronts - first on the border, but most importantly, in our communities.
As to how we should do that, your guess is as good as mine.
Seth Pate really liked Benicio Del Toro in "Traffic." Smuggle him a comment at: spate@asu.edu.






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