Comments on: A Profound Sense of Unease

By: Jey Manifold

Jey Manifold — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 11:55:50 +0000

Another of the perceptual risks to be managed is my inability to properly spell “perceptual” prior to having had my second cup of coffee. See Turtledove’s King of All for what things might be like if caffeine were illegal.

By: Jay Manifold

Jay Manifold — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 11:53:10 +0000

Gentlemen, this is why the first thing I said in my comment to Jonathan’s post was that another elephant in the room is narcotics prohibition.

Among the political/percaptual risks to be managed — and I must say that if they aren’t managed in this forum, they are most unlikely to be managed in mainstream political discussion — are: conflation of narcotics smuggling with illegal immigration; and bureaucratic opportunism, as we saw in the wake of 9/11/2001.

The armed gangs, aided and abetted by corrupted military units, which have so changed the atmosphere along the Texas border are not smuggling people; they’re smuggling products whose unit price would drop by 99% if they were treated like alcohol or tobacco. The criminal activity associated with trafficking would simply disappear in a more sanely regulated environment. Every economist knows this.

And we may be certain that so far from reluctance to respond, there are plenty of special interests in the Federal government who would love to get a massive enforcement mechanism out of the illegal immigration “crisis,” up to and including a cabinet-level department. I need hardly mention the likelihood of wish-list legislation, loaded with earmarks for (at best) tangentially-related projects.

By: Shannon Love

Shannon Love — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 02:52:16 +0000

Border security might prove to be something that only a Democrat can spearhead under the ole “only Nixon can go to China” idea. Like NAFTA, Democrats will fight the idea if they see it as a purely rightwing concept and it’s easier for Democrats to fend off charges of xenophobia and racism.

Just a thought.

By: James R. Rummel

James R. Rummel — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 01:30:50 +0000

Last I read, the Mexican government tried to fix the problem of bribed Mexican army units by not allowing them to be deployed within 30 miles of the US border. We will see how that works out. One of the news articles I linked to above reports on a standoff between US Border Patrol agents and 3 Mexican army humvees armed with heavy machine guns. This incident took place yesterday. I'd say that pretty much sinks the idea that the Mexican government's response is going to work. Frankly, I am not sure we have the political will to really secure the border. That is pretty much a point I made in my post. We don't. Yet

By: Mitch

Mitch — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 23:33:08 +0000

One key to this is the Mexican government. They have an economic interest in getting surplus workers out of their hair, and their economy needs the remittances sent from the US. We can’t solve the issue while they are giving their citizens guides on the places to cross and the best methods. Somebody – and I don’t think it’s going to be Bush – is going to have to get the Mexican government onside, one way or another. Their actions are not those of a friendly nation.

Oh well, I’ve been avoiding this topic. I guess I’ll have to come up with something, but there are no attractive choices among the policies proposed.

By: Brett Bellmore

Brett Bellmore — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 23:31:39 +0000

“Why isn�t this a big deal?”

Because the US media routinely censor the news based on their own perceived need to avoid inflaming our bigoted passions. It wouldn’t be safe to let us know everything that’s going on, because we might not react to it the way their enlightened sentiments dictate we ought to.

By: Shannon Love

Shannon Love — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 22:30:45 +0000

Last I read, the Mexican government tried to fix the problem of bribed Mexican army units by not allowing them to be deployed within 30 miles of the US border. We will see how that works out.

The reason this stuff doesn’t get much airplay outside the southwest is that Mexicans at all levels don’t want the problems in Mexico to spill over the border because they know it will prompt a firming of the border. In the past, they have moved rather aggressively to stamp out problems that bled over the border. Now, however, I think many of the traditional restraints are breaking down. The drug gangs are getting crazier and are divorced from the traditional controls of family and patronage. It is only a matter of time before they do something stupid north of the border.

The problem of enforcement is huge. 1 in 10 living people born in Mexico currently reside in the US. Frankly, I am not sure we have the political will to really secure the border. Doing so will require hurting people who are merely trying to find work and alleviate the poverty of their families. Do we as a nation have the will to create a kind of photonegative berlin wall where we hurt people for trying to get in?