The War On Drugs, And Illegal Immigration

I have touched on this before, but a recent post at Laurenline makes me want to say it again.

The lesson we should all have learned in our 30 year long failed war on drugs also applies to the issue of illegal immigration.

The vast majority of our efforts in stopping drugs from entering our country have centered around interdiction. We have spend billions trying to find the tunnels, catch the ships and planes, and arrest the mules as they enter the country. We have spend billions trying to destroy the drugs in the fields, overthrowing the politicians who have enriched themselves in the drug trade, and imprisoning those who traffic drugs.

And drugs are as easy to find now as they were in 76 or 86 or 96, all of this money spent, all of the effort expended with no results, because we never addressed the reason the drugs were here.

Demand, as long as there is a large enough profit to be made, someone will take the risk to get that profit.

This applies to the issue of illegal immigration. The overwhelming majority of illegals in the US are here to work. If there is no work, there is no incentive to come to the US. If we are serious and want to stop illegal immigration we have to change our focus. We can build fences, hire guards, and spend billions, but it will do no good, unless we address demand, the flow will not stop.

We do this by holding those who employee illegal workers accountable.

By using the laws we already have in place, and adding in harsher penalties ( in the form of prison time and huge fines ), we can do far more and spend far less. These punishments must apply not only to the person who does the hiring, but also to the company it self, and the executives of that company. In addition, companies who hire subcontractors to do work for them must also be held fully accountable for those employed by their subcontractors.

Only be addressing the demand will we be able to reduce the impact of illegal immigration (or drugs) and all the other grand plans are just a waste of money and time that will be profitable for a few well connected companies, but useless for the American people.


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Immigration