The article, “Why Trump’s Wall Won’t Keep Out Heroin,” was featured in The New York Times, a center-left publication, on 2/16/17. The author of the article is Sam Quinones. Quinones is a freelance journalist who works for The New York Times, National Geographic, and the Pacific Standard Magazine. The accuracy of the many assertions in this article was difficult to verify because some assertions are generalizations, or information is not widely available. Sources were not provided. The author remains objective throughout the piece, although the author is clearly not in favor of a wall along the US-Mexico border. The solution presented is not to build the wall. Quinones does consider different opinions and the various pros and cons of each. …show more content…
Quinones states that “American demand for dope is greater than ever today. On our streets heroin from Mexico remains potent, prevalent and cheap – signs of how much is being trafficked, a lot of it, I suspect, through walled border zones.” (Quinones, 2017) Demand for heroin has been increasing in the United States for many years, and so has heroin-related deaths. According to the DEA, heroin-related deaths increased by 248% between 2010 and 2014. (Unprecedented: Heroin use & overdose deaths triple in US) The next assertion regarded Mexican heroin on the streets. In 2012, 45% of heroin seized by the DEA originated in Mexico. By 2014 that percentage rose to 79%. (Unprecedented: Heroin use & overdose deaths triple in US) The final claim was that much of the heroin is being smuggled through walled border zones. Currently there is only 700 miles of fencing between Mexico and the United States out of the nearly 2,000 miles of border we share. It was mentioned earlier that many people smuggle small amounts of heroin across the border but the large operations smuggle bigger amounts by truck. With that information, I find it unlikely that large amounts are traveling through walled border zones. There was not available information when looking for those statistics but tunnels are common between the two borders which would explain some of the drugs trafficked through walled border
In the article “Trump outlines immigration specifics,” Jeremy Diamond and Sara Murray analyze Republican candidate Donald Trump’s latest immigration policy proposal and demonstrate how his unrealistic plan could cause more harm than good. For many years now, the topic of immigration has always been a problematic one and with reason. One side argues that immigrants are taking American jobs, while the other side maintains that immigrants are actually helping the US economy. While both sides rarely see eye to eye on multiple issues, one thing that they can both agree on is that the current US immigration system is, indeed, broken. Because of this issue, Trump has proposed an immigration plan that would require the US to build a wall along the
This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to listen to DEA Agent Michael Sullivan talk about his career as a DEA Agent. He did not specifically discuss one thing, but he talked about how he started off doing Border Patrol. He discussed how he often caught people that were trying to transport drugs back and forth. He also mentioned that the largest amount of drugs he found was over 21,000 grams of weed. One interesting thing that I enjoyed from his discussion was the different tactics he told us that people use as a way to transport drugs from the US to another country. He told us that people will cut all of the organs out of a dead baby and stuff the baby with drugs. They
The United States agency of drugs have discovered that for all of the illegal drugs consumed in the nation has been transported by the Mexican cartels. “U.S. federal officials say that the mexican cartels operate in dozens of U.S. cities and analysts say they are moving to consolidate their control of the entire supply chain of illegals drugs”(Schwartz, 1). The government of the United States have been conducting the investigation to now if the cartels are north. Many big cities today have a piece of the cartel organization working there and also producing drugs to distribute within the city. According to the investigation done by the DEA and U.N officials “Mexican cartels have established command - and - control centers to orchestrate cocaine shipments by sea and air along the still wild caribbean coast with the help of local authorities”(Booth, 2). All though that the cartel are moving to the United States they are still leaving command center in mexico to conduct shipments by ground or any other shipments overseas. The cartel is able to transport such quantities of drugs with help of the local authorities and other corrupt government officials.
The United States have declared that it is doing its best to combat the war on drugs. The drug problem has not stopped and the people continue to buy drugs no matter what circumstances they are obtained. With drugs prices rising, people are willing do anything to get drugs even if it leads them to become involved in criminal activities such as robbery. The money and military activity have not been enough, and the “urban problem,” has not been resolved. The United States has the largest demand of drugs in the world. While other countries also face the drug problem, the United States has spent the most money and law enforcement; however, its effectiveness is questionable. Consequently, now there is a great amount of drugs coming from Mexico’s borderline into the United States. The drug cartels have become more violent, killing Mexican officers and innocent people in order to smuggle their drugs. The United States needs more security control and better coordination between agencies to fight the violent Mexican drug war spilling across the southern border. There is not enough organization between the D.E.A and other groups such as the Department of Homeland Security. The United States has little hope of winning the war unless enough protection on the border and Border States are developed. The agencies need better coordination between the federal, state and locals agencies in order to prevent more drugs to cross
In previous years, many countries and territories around the world have attempted to build walls, and many have had very much success. For example, Most of the walls built after World War 2 and the Cold War still exist today. There were a total of 110 walls built between that time period. Professor Nazli Avdan led a study that had a goal of identifying if a border wall reduced or increased the risk of a transnational terrorist attack. This study found that since the year 1900, transnational terrorist attacks have seen a thirteen percent annual decrease in countries with border walls (Border fences reduce...attacks). This has been a real focal point that President Donald Trump has used to get people to agree with him. Another reason of his includes the disrupting of the funneling of illicit money and drugs into the United States of America (Border fences reduce...attacks). The bonus of the building of the wall is that it will be a visible sign of the government taking action.
criminal groups operating from Mexico smuggle cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, amphetamines, and marijuana into the United States.
There is a major heroin epidemic in the United States, and most of it is imported from Mexico. We need to keep the drugs out of our county and away from our youth. Police and detectives are working hard to stop drug use, but what good is it if the drugs are coming from a different country, where we have no control over? Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants are involved in some sort of crime in the United States, and 25 percent of the jailed population are illegal in the United States. That means that taxpayers are paying for illegal immigrants to live in a jail cell.
many critics point out the illegal drugs are smuggled across our nation especially the Southwestern border and it is in wholesale quantity that the flow of illegal border crosser. Although it has been reduced in recent years, it is still significant problem for border security. Current administration takes the opposite side of this. They are saying that "they are working with Mexico government through the' Twenty first century border initiative', to improve coordination in planning, financing, building, and operating bi-national infrastructure; to enhance cross-border commerce and ties while managing our common threats; and to augment law enforcement cooperation to disrupt 'criminal flows' and enhance public safety. Also, The Administration is working with Canada to enhance joint law enforcement efforts and bolster cross-border security operations. Through the 'United States – Canada Beyond the Border Action Plan', Canadian and United State law enforcement are forging new ways of sharing resources, personnel, and information to uncover and disrupt threats that endanger the security of both the United States and Canada."( Border Security: DHS Progress and Challenges in Securing the U.S. Southwest and Northern Borders). It is creating a twenty first century border which is more secure now than it has ever been. Neither side in this debate seems interest in defining what a secure border means and without a definition of secure border, it is hard to say who is
This a report of our current drug traffic situation we have been following between the border of Mexico and our homeland, the United States of America. This report has been generated by Agent Emily Richards, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Currently I am heading a special subcommittee task force that has been following the current drug traffic issues we have with Mexico. Data collected by my committee has given evidence to difficult matters occurring that have kept the current drug cartels of Mexico in business. The following paragraphs will give detailed information on what our committee has discovered.
Drug smuggling has been an issue in the United States since the 1960s and the Border Patrol has made many efforts to stop drugs from crossing our borders. The Purpose of the Border Patrol is to secure and keep our borders safe. Recently their focus has been on illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Drug smuggling has become an increasing issue and the efforts of the Border Patrol are being pushed to stop these illegal activities. The influx of drugs into the U.S. has many effects on our country as a whole and as smugglers get creative in finding new methods to get around the Border Patrol, it becomes harder for them to stop it. This may be why it seems too easy to get drugs across the border. With new techniques of smuggling it allows for more drugs to enter the U.S. and it leave the Border Patrol on their toes and on a constant lookout for these new techniques.
Every day the U.S. border patrol has to constantly keep an eye out for the smuggling of drugs by Mexican Cartels. There has been much violence due to this drug problem that has left many people near the border killed and is allowing more criminals to obtain these weapons. A lot of this attention goes to the U.S. because many of the weapons utilized in the “drug war” are U.S. made and is interfering with trading relations amongst both the U.S. and Mexico. With this current violent situation in Mexico this has transformed the flow of weapons to an even larger scale.
Drug trafficking has become an increasingly growing problem in the world today. Illegal drug trade is a worldwide black market consisting of production, distribution, packaging, and sale of illegal substances. Although today’s "War on Drugs" is a modern phenomenon, drug problems have been a common problem throughout history. The market for illegal drugs is massive, when we consider the estimated global drug trade value is worth $321 billion (Vulliamy). The most drug trafficking happens on the border between Mexico and the United States. Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon said, “Our neighbor is the largest consumer of drugs in the world. And everybody wants to sell him drugs through our door and our window”
Author Peter Andreas explains that a "wide range of smuggling practices" has been part of the "cross-border economic exchange since the nineteenth century," and hence the present-day smuggling of drugs across the border into the United States is not at all a new phenomenon (Andreas, 2012, p. 29). In fact Andreas explains that the economic relationship between the United States and Mexico "…was founded on smuggling," and today (as drugs move from south to north) things are opposite of what they were two hundred or so years ago when the smuggling went from north to south (Andreas, 29).
It is all over the Internet; the many stories of drug dealers from Latin America being caught coming through the same tunnels immigrants use to get into the country. In addition, because of them not only are they closing the tunnels but also they all put up with
Drug trafficking has been an ongoing epidemic in the United States, as well us other countries for an unimaginable amount of time. Illegal drugs varying from heroin and cocaine are primarily the main drugs that get smuggled in the United States from South America. Even marijuana and methamphetamine have been popular in the drug smuggling “industry”. These gangs go to a variety of different extents to get the job done. Drug trafficking increases the violence levels These drugs have been smuggled through the Southwest Border since the 1970s and are attempting to expand the distribution of those drugs into eastern U.S. markets. The countries of drug production have been seen as the worst affected by prohibition. In many countries worldwide, the illegal drug trafficking can be directly linked to high violent crimes. This is especially true in third world countries, but has still been seen as an issue for many developed countries all over the world. Drug trafficking increases the risk of violence and crime due rise of addiction along with an increase of death. It also effects the along with correctional system effects.to its high costs, Nearly all of the heroin produced in Mexico is destined for distribution in the United States. Organized crime groups operating from Mexico produce, smuggle, and distribute various illegal drugs after trafficking them across the US border. Trafficking groups that operate from Mexico tend to avoid penalties by their stealthy methods of smuggling