Much of the dialogue that comes with the debate over increased and harder borders here in America comes from the war on drugs. The war on drugs is a topic that most people agree on, not many arguing against our government’s effort to keep America clean. Such rhetoric is used for defense in increased border initiative; not only will securing our borders control America’s immigration problem but it will also improve America’s drug problem as well.
Such evidence is becoming less valid than ever. In a recent New York Time’s piece they detailed drug lords new reliance on drones to smuggle illegal substances across our borders and the increased difficulty of patrolling such an act. Now instead of paying off police officers, hiding contraband, or disguising it as something else, smugglers are simply flying their packages right across border lines. Such efforts are now also being experimented with delivery packages to prison facilities. The article focuses on how smugglers are being successful at delivering packages in high security prison facilities. If this success rate is occurring in prisons, how easy will it be for smugglers to simply fly drugs over thousands of miles of United States borders?
In a world consumed and now reliant on technology and its advancement, it is more clear than ever that higher walls will not ameliorate our war on drugs. Instead, such practices may make it easier and safer for cartels to succeed in the process. Such rhetoric needs to me removed from the immigration debate simply because it has no value. This is no longer the 1980s, we are living in a world that runs on technology. Anyone with a click of a bottom on the internet could own a drone of their own now. Higher walls or hardened borders will have little impact on the efforts and success’s of drug cartels.
“We put up higher fences to stop people from throwing things over them. Now they’re just flying over them.”
Smuggling 