Immigration – Why Current Solution Proposals Will Fail

I think most people in America will agree that we can’t afford an open border and that we really have a problem managing the flow of immigrants into this country.  Where I think we are being myopic is in the solutions being promoted.  Just as zero tolerance and strict enforcement hasn’t solved our nation’s drug problem, the same approach to immigration will meet a similar fate.  We really need to look at the big picture to find the solutions.  An antacid may make your stomach pain tolerable but, if a bleeding ulcer is the source of that pain, perhaps another treatment regimen is in order.

While greatly reduced since 2000, illegal immigration is still a problem

I will agree that some legislative changes will be needed to better manage the influx of people across our southern borders.  The rules in place now are universally thought to be inadequate.  Policy changes within our immigration enforcement agencies are clearly needed.  Changes will likely be aimed however, at managing the problem, not solving the problem.  Border walls, more judges, drone patrols, more officers, etc., are all fodder for debate.  They are the antacid, not the cure.  The real solution to our immigration problem lies closer to its source.  Our nation’s war on drugs, is inexorably linked to much of the recent influx of refugees from Mexico and Central America.

Our moderate drug enforcement successes in Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia, have just managed to move trafficking routes to other regions in the area.  These Whack-A-Mole efforts may have diminished production in one area only to have that production pop up in another country.  Despite over forty years of drug control efforts that involve eradication of production, interdiction of traffic, and criminalization of consumers, our US drug problem has still managed to reach epidemic proportions.

Whack-A-Mole
Knock one down, another pops up

Mexico and Central America have within their borders some of the world’s most dangerous cities.  El Salvador tops the charts with 82.8 homicides per 100,000 people, more than 15 times the US rate.  Seven of the world’s top ten most dangerous countries are in Central & South America and the Caribbean and it can largely be traced to drug trafficking.  Just as migrants pour across European borders fleeing war zones, Central American residents are fleeing an even more dangerous war.  It is our war on drugs.

2016 Murder Rates per 100,000 People
The US rate is 5.35

This war on drugs began under President Nixon in 1971.  If forty seven years of a failed drug policy have shown us anything, it is that we need a better solution.  When you analyze complex social problems you will most often need to follow the money.  One current estimate pegged the annual illicit drug trade at 320 billion dollars.  I won’t debate the accuracy of that estimate but just know there is too much money involved here to solve the problem with current tactics.  The demand for illicit drugs has not subsided and we have made little progress in cutting off the supply.  Where there is a demand, there will be suppliers to meet that demand.  It is a basic business model with a long record of accomplishment.

The Hidden Costs of Our Drug Problem

A drastic change in our thinking is needed.  When I say drastic, I’m not kidding.  This country, by one estimate, has spent over 213 billion dollars since 2008, on law enforcement, drug treatment, and resources dedicated to fight trafficking.  We are again not looking at the big picture for a proper solution.  If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results, we are guilty as charged.

I offer you here a "what if" scenario where I think a shift in our direction would be of great benefit.  I believe that these changes would reduce the northern flow of immigrants, provide a more humane policy for addiction, reduce crime, reduce prison populations, reduce unemployment, improve our infrastructure, and perhaps even save some tax dollars.

What if we:

• Decriminalized simple possession of all drugs.
• Legalized marijuana and controlled its sale like alcohol.
• Researched new medications to curb the desire for hard drugs.
• Took away much of the profit motive of illicit drugs by offering chemical alternatives to those hard drugs for free.
• Provided free counseling and treatment for addiction.
• Diverted some of the money being spent on the drug war and unnecessary incarcerations to pay for all of the above.
• Took the money left over and put it to improving our nation’s infrastructure.
• Enacted legislation for legitimate seasonal migration for agricultural workers.
• Increased penalties for illicit importation or sale of hard drugs.

Before you dismiss this seemingly radical health oriented approach to our drug problem, know that in 2001 Portugal decriminalized the use of all drugs and the results were mostly positive. Drug overdoses and drug-related HIV transmission decreased dramatically, without a significant increase in drug use.

"The Global Commission on Drug Policy includes Kofi Annan, Richard Branson, and the former presidents of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland. They broke new ground with their initial report in 2011 by advancing and globalizing the debate over drug prohibition and its alternatives. Their subsequent report, released in September 2014, not only reiterates their demands for decriminalization, alternatives to incarceration, and greater emphasis on public health approaches – but also calls for responsible legal regulation of currently-illegal drugs."  Drug Policy Alliance

By removing the profit motive from the illicit drug trade, that business model will collapse.  We would still have drug addicts but they would not be clogging up our prison systems and they could avail themselves of our new drug treatment facilities.  The money we save by shutting down the current drug war and not incarcerating drug users could be used for drug treatment and repairing our infrastructure.

172 Million Dollars of Cocaine

The rebuilding of our infrastructure would provide employment opportunities to people who, without jobs, might turn to drugs.  Without the money to corrupt politicians and without an outlet for their drugs, current drug traffickers would need to turn to hopefully less violent means of employment.  The predictable reduction in crime in Central America and Mexico would greatly lower the incentive to move to the U.S.  Those individuals who want to move north for financial reasons would have a means of doing that through new legislation that would provide a legal pathway to fill those jobs that Americans don’t want.  Seasonal worker programs for agriculture would be one example.  It could be fashioned after the H-1B Visa program that President Trump uses to staff hotel positions that local citizens apparently don’t want.

H1-B Visa Program for Seasonal Immigrant Employees
President Trump uses such workers in his hotels

The United States could also bring financial pressure to bear on those countries who don't address their drug and crime problems.  These countries are directly contributing to the mass exodus responsible for our current immigration crisis.  We need to confront the source of the immigration problem and not just try to clean up the mess caused by the crime and corruption of countries south of our borders.  This is not a perfect solution but our efforts to date have certainly not yielded the results we want.  Mass immigration through our southern borders is a direct result of our own drug crisis.  When faced with violence and murder in their home countries, the dangerous trek northward is seen as the lesser of two evils.

Closing note:  Statistics provided here were from reliable sources but, as with all facts and figures, there is a margin for error.  These numbers should be seen as indicative of the nature of our problem, but not as some exact measure of the problem.