Immigration Hoopla – Part One

Fear is a funny thing. It makes us respond to real (and perceived) threats by creating things like Arizona’s SB 1070. The controversial legislation is said to be attributed to shifting demographics leading to a larger Hispanic population; increased drugs- and human smuggling-related violence in Mexico and Arizona; and a struggling state economy. I’ve been wondering what “real people” in the border states think about the immigration situation and all the hoopla. Last week, I was fortunate to talk with a YWCA colleague from El Paso, TX,—I’ll call her Fiona—literally a stone’s throw from the infamous Mexican city of Juarez. (By the way, I don’t know Fiona’s ethnicity and didn’t think it was important to ask.)

Fiona shared that from the average El Paso resident’s perspective, there was little concern about people moving between the two cities. Texans went to work for American companies in Mexico; Mexicans traveled to El Paso to work, visit family members, etc. and back without care or incident until Arturo Beltran Leyva, the “boss of bosses” in the Mexican drug trade was killed in a crackdown by President Calderon last December. Since his death, the war between cartels has escalated in a fight for control of the lucrative drug trade. She admitted that it was scary to hear that 112 people had been killed in one weekend in the drug violence, knowing it had happened so close to home, but she said she doesn’t extrapolate that fear to the population in general. She was aware of the Arizona rancher that was killed on his ranch, but contrary to what I had heard, she said there were reports in their neck of the woods that led to speculation about the details of his death. I, on the other hand had read a Mexican killed him and fled across the border. Her final position? “We just wish someone would wrestle control so the violence will subside and things can get back to [their brand of] normal.” Now, where there was a beautiful park stretching across the border and shared by people from Juarez and El Paso, an ugly fence stands to diminish everyone’s enjoyment.

My conversation with Fiona gave me a perspective I’d not gotten from the media. I have, however, learned this: The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says the Beltran Leyva Cartel is key in the importation and distribution of tons of cocaine in the United States, as well as large quantities of heroin. What does that say about our (extended) culpability in this mess? Why do we spend almost ALL of our resources in attacking the supply side of the drug problem and little in comparison, on the demand side? Who supplies drugs—and I don’t mean just the people involved in street trafficking—and who uses them? No good business survives without demand for its products.

“The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger. The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity or it will move apart.” Substitute United States for “world” and the statement might ring true for many, today. Franklin Roosevelt said that. How many years ago was he President?