Did that idea sound stupid to you, too? Luckily it is not MY idea. This is Ms. Janet Napolitano's latest burst of genius. She is, of course, the Secretary of Homeland Security. Madam Secretary tells us that, while the efforts along the border to stop illegal crossing, drug smuggling, and human trafficking will continue, the federal government should also begin providing grants to border towns and cities to provide treatment for drug abusers. If the abusers were treated, the smuggling of drugs would stop, yes? Well, wait a minute. I thought the United States had been providing drug treatment money for years, from counseling all the way to free needles. After fifty or so years of this, the drug problem dried right up! Uh...no it did not. It is just as bad, if not worse, than it ever was. The drug treatment grants would be earmarked for the towns along the border. I have another question: Why? Are the drugs stopping in the border towns? Umm...no. Are the drugs staying within the borders of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California? Again, no! So where do we send the grant money? And again, that approach has worked wonders up to this point. Right!
Ms. Napolitano also tells us that the numbers of drug smuggler and illegal alien arrests are up. It was just a few weeks ago we were told that the numbers were DOWN. I am not sure which it is, but I lean toward down, because so many drug smugglers have been killed in the cartel wars, and because would-be border crossers are afraid to travel through Mexico to cross the border, so it would seem likely that numbers would be down in that respect as well. Unfortunately neither of these statistics have been impacted by US federal policy. Ms. Napolitano also once again made the empty assertion that border safety is at an all time high. I WOULD say ask the border residents but since the border towns (on the south side) are largely empty, or else under direct control of the cartels, we would find it very difficult to ask the residents ANYTHING. But the bodies are stacking up with quite regular regularity. I don't really feel any encouragement in believing that the body count is down just because someone told us it is. They are still uncovering mass graves with fairly new bodies in them.
But, back to my headline. Let's slow the drug smuggling and other border issues by providing grant money to the border communities so that they can treat the people who have drug problems. This will in turn slow down the border crossing problem. I miss the link here. I know we have a border mess, but there are two different issues. One is illegal aliens entering the United States. The other is the Mexican government's "War on Drugs" and the related cartel violence. These two issues boil down to one problem. Our southern border is not secure, and the lives of our citizens who live along the border are, in turn, not secure. And, as we learned by the killing of a policeman in Houston, even people who do not live near the border are placed "at risk" by our insecure border. No, Ms. Napolitano, grants to provide treatment for drug addicts will not protect our borders, nor slow the border crossings and border crime. I would suggest the the millions of dollars to be outlaid for drug treatment be instead diverted to the US military, while at the same time our troops should be withdrawn from those countries overseas that don't even want us there. The money could then be used to provide funds for our troops to "occupy" our side of the border. Then, with the full might of the military brought to bear, our borders could be truly secured, the illegal immigration problem would at least be slowed, and the drug smugglers, if not totally shut down, would at least have to go through much great expense and troubles to ship their drugs across our newly secured borders.
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