Mobile Borders and Immobile Government

Seems there has been a lot of talk about U.S. borders in the news recently, both our southern border with Mexico and our northern border with Canada. Unfortunately, much of the talk and news further illustrates a concept that New York Times columnist David Brooks introduced in a 2010 column, namely the concept of immobile government.

He accurately defined the current state of government in this country today: it is has gotten so large and so unwieldy and is run so inefficiently by the American political class that no issue or problem is ever addressed and solved, it is immobile. However, despite this nonperformance, the immobile government continues to use up and waste vast sums of wealth from American taxpayers who get virtually nothing in return.

The latest examples of immobile government, unfortunately, have to do with our porous borders and the ever growing threat of drug cartel violence in Mexico. Many times in this blog we have listed examples of the violence, to which we can add the latest examples:

- The Associated Press reported on January 24, 2011 that Mexican gunmen firing automatic weapons killed seven people in a park in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. The ironic thing about the massacre was that the park had been built as an anti-violence measure. There were 180 bullet casings found after the shooting, casings from the same type of assault weapons typically used by the Mexican drug cartel gangs. Two of the dead were playing soccer at the time of the shootings. 3,000 people were killed in the same city in all of 2010.

- The same article also reported that in a separate incident, seven drug gang suspects were killed in a shootout with Mexican authorities in Monterrey.

- On February 4, 2011, the Associated Press reported that U.S. government officials had warned U.S. citizens not to drive at night in parts of a Mexican city and also warned that armed robberies  had increased against foreigners in another Mexican city. The U.S. government said on its website that it would not allow its own personnel to drive to the airport at night and recommended that other Americans take the same precaution. It also provided defensive driving tips including "do not hesitate to run over any median or similar obstacle to make an emergency U-turn to get out of harm's way."

- On February 3, 2011, the Associated Press reported that drug cartel gang members likely killed a retired Mexican general who took over as police chief in a Mexican border city a month ago along with two of his bodyguards.

- If these AP stories are not enough to get your attention, consider some facts and observations from Columnist Carl Hiaasen of the Miami Herald from one of his recent columns:

• More than 20,000 Mexicans have been killed in the drug cartel battles since 2006 including over 2,000 law enforcement officers.
• During a recent 24 hour period in Acapulco, 27 people were killed including 14 whose decapitated bodies were dumped in a shopping center.
• Mexican drug cartel shootings have been reported in Arizona, Texas, California, and Alabama.
• It is believed that Mexican drug smuggling organizations have criminal networks in 230 U.S. cities, ranging from Miami to Billings, Montana. These estimates come from Federal authorities, according to Mr. Hiaasen.
• Although the Mexican cartels traffic in all types of drugs, their main activity is marijuana, which has made many of the drug cartel leaders billionaires.
• Illegal immigration is likely to increase as more and more Mexicans flee the violence, corruption, and hopelessness of living in a country that is devolving into a narco state.

Very serous stuff. Violence, increased illegal immigration, illegal drug cartel induced anarchy, and corruption, not only south of our borders but also throughout the entire country. And what is our immobile government and the political class doing to stop it? Not much, if you observed how high ranking government officials are addressing the issues. First, consider some words from a recent AP report covering Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's view of the drug cartels:

• Napolitano reported that U.S. communities on the border with Mexico are safer than most American believe.
• Drug cartels will be met with "overwhelming force" if they should move north.
• U.S. authorities deported 779,000 illegal immigrants in 2009 and 2010. On average this comes out to about 389,000 a year.
• Last year, about 195,000 of the deportees were convicted criminals. Thus, half of who we are finding and shipping back to Mexico are convicts.

Seems like the Secretary has a little disconnect from reality. Of course our border cities are safer than most Americans believe, the cartels are not interested in just the U.S. border cities but are interested in the entire nation, as Mr. Hiaasen described, from Miami to Billings. The border cities are just the gateway, they are not the final destination of the illegal drugs, the illegal immigrants, or the violence.

You cannot say the borders are secure if you are shipping back more than 1,000 illegals a day on average, half of whom are known criminals. Finally, you cannot claim that you will meet the drug cartels with "overwhelming force" IF they move north. They already have moved north into over 200 U.S. cities, as reported by the same government who is still looking for the drug cartels to make a move north. So, why Napolitano sits immobile on the southern border looking for the cartels to make their move, their mobility has enabled them to already embed themselves everywhere north of that border.

The bigger government immobility example? According to an article in the June 11, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, in 1986 Congress ordered the Pentagon to seal the border with Mexico within 45 days. Seems like that order has been rather immobile for the past 25 years or so since millions of illegal immigrants, probably thousands and thousand of tons of illegal drugs, and cartel violence has spilled over since that ineffective, immobile Congressional decree.

But lets not just look at our southern border. Border security with Canada was in the news recently. President Obama met with his Canadian counterpart, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, last Friday and they agreed to improve border security. This improvement would come about through better screening, use of new technologies, sharing information among law enforcement agencies, and identifying potential threats early. One would have thought that as two friendly, economically intertwined nations that all of this was already going on but what do I know, maybe the political class is just getting around to doing the basics of border security.

However, this is not the case. According to a 2004 Congressional Research Service report, the "United States and Canada are striving to balance adequate security and other issues such as the facilitation of legitimate cross-border travel and commerce, and protecting civil liberties. Congress has taken action to improve border facility infrastructure, increasing the number of border patrol agents and immigration inspectors at the northern border, and provide these officials with additional technologically upgraded equipment. Congress has also taken action to track the entry and exit of foreign visitors by mandating an automated entry/exit system... These initiatives are outlined in a 30-point plan, which was signed by officials from both countries in December, 2001."

So, talk about immobile government. An agreement is signed more than  nine years ago, three years after that, the political class and the government that it runs are still "striving" to fulfill the agreement, and last week, the President Obama says we are going to move forward on the same initiatives that were agreed to years and years ago. How more immobile can you get, nine years and counting. It is a wonder and a miracle nothing bad has happening due to the political class immobility on this issue.

And talk about irony, consider another recent news report, this one from the Miami Herald on February 1, 2011 in an article written by Rob Hotakainen. According to Mr. Hotakainen and a recently released government report:

• Less than 1% of our northern, 4,000 mile border with Canada is adequately protected.
• This 1% is about 32 miles which has reached "an acceptable level of security" and Federal authorities had the ability to detect illegal border crossings along only 1,007 miles of the border.
• In 2010, the Federal government spent $3 billion to crack down on illegal activity along the northern border, making about 6,000 arrests and intercepting nearly 40,000 pounds of illegal drugs.The government report suggested greater Federal oversight  to reduce "potential exploitation by terrorists, alien smuggling, trafficking of illicit drugs, and other contraband and criminal activity. Great thought, but wasn't the same thoughts and intentions formalized back in December, 2001 as reported by the Congressional Research Service?

The irony comes in when the article quotes members of the political class, all or most of whom, were in office and in charge back when the December, 2001 agreement and intent was signed regarding our northern border:

• Senator Joe Lieberman: "To me, this is absolutely alarming. Is it not too much to ask that our government be able to at least detect all illegal entries along the border, so we can get this information into the hands of law enforcement agencies that can then make the arrests." Gee, Senator, aren't you a part of that government that you criticize or am I missing something?
• Senator Carl Levin: "Any failure to coordinate efforts between agencies that weakens security on the northern border is totally unacceptable." So, Senator, what are you going to do about it if it is so unacceptable?
• Senator Susan Collins: "It is very clear from this report that the United States remains vulnerable. It is shocking that we have total control of 32 miles of a 4,000 mile border... There is a great deal of work to be done." So, Senator, when are you and your Senate counterparts going to get started? It is obvious you and them have done nothing for the past nine years or so.

Out of touch, clueless, and immobile, the trifecta. Unbelievable.

So in summary, the Mexican drug cartels and illegal immigration have already gone around Naplitano's immobile border Maginot Line, into hundreds of U.S. cities,  much like the Germans bypassed the immobile, dug in French in World War II. While being critical of Arizona for at least doing something as it relates to illegal immigration, the administration sends over 1,000 illegals back to Mexico every day. Senators are astounded by the lack of progress in mobilizing forces to secure our northern border but fail to take the blame for not doing anything for nine years. Thus, the undeniable conclusion: people and contraband are quite mobile when it comes to breaching our borders while the political class is totally immobile when it comes to stopping them.

Several steps from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government"  have to be implemented to get rid of this paralyzed government we suffer from today:

1. Step 34 would remove politicians from their Congressional committee posts for failure to execute their oversight duties. For example, anyone sitting on the Congressional committees responsible for overseeing the security of our northern border would be removed from those committee posts since after nine years, it is likely they are incapable of executing the committee duties of securing our borders.
2. Step 39 would impose term limits on politicians. We need some new thinking and new ideas. We need people in office that are just basically more aware of life and reality then what we are stuck with today. For Lieberman, Levin, and Collins to act so surprised and not even half aware that our northern border is still not secured, is just plain scary.
3. Step 26 and Step 29 would take a ground up look at both our current, failed war on drugs policy and immigration policies since both are so intertwined. Since the war on drugs began over 40 years ago and has brought us to the violence we now are facing from the cartels, it is obvious we have been standing still from a government perspective as the drug problem has marched along unimpeded. If you are shipping back over 1,000 illegal aliens a day, lord knows how many you are not catching. Thus, we need a new approach with new ways of thinking to get out of the rut we are now in with these two issues.

David Brooks was so right. We can expect nothing to change unless we find a way to break the monopoly of immobility that the political class has imposed on the country and the government that it should be supporting. Viewed another way, we are currently ruled by about 500 versions of Jabba The Hutt, a large, formless, immobile creature that consumes resources without making life any better for those around them. Whatever definition works for you is fine, both are accurate.




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http://www.cato.org/
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