US-Mexico Border: Contemporary Problems - Coursework Example

US-Mexico Border: Contemporary Problems The 2000-mile-long US-Mexico border is considered to be one of the world’s busiest regions, where over ten million people live in twelve cities from both sides of the border. This area brings together thirty-nine Mexican municipalities and twenty-five counties in the US as well as a total of forty-four ports of entry, where more than 300 million persons, 70 million cars, and more than 6 million commercial trucks legally crossed, carrying 80 percent of the US-Mexican bilateral trade. (Andreas & Snider 140) It is a geographical enclave where all the issues in regard to the US-Mexico relationship express themselves in a microcosm. For this paper, the variety of problems derived from immigration, drug trafficking, trade and security would be examined in an effort to determine why the problems persist. From here, it is expected that this paper would be able to identify possible changes in the US-Mexico bilateral agenda in the context of effective border policies. Immigration The current immigration problem on the US-Mexican border has spanned several decades since the cancellation of the Bracero program – the American legislated initiative that brought privileged status for Mexican laborers during World War II. The Bracero program was terminated in 1969 but immigration persisted since. The US Congress passed into law the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted amnesty to some 3 million undocumented migrants. It also sought to address the illegal immigration that continued in steady stream from Mexico. The act became the foundation of the institutionalization of the Border Patrol. From 1986 to 2006, the Border Patrol grew from 2,000 to about 12,200 agents and its budget expanded from $200 million to $1.213 billion. (Payan 56) The ongoing strategy underscores the US policy that the immigration problem is first and foremost a border law enforcement problem. Indeed, the United States had made the Border Patrol the army in its new war on undocumented migration and was fully engaged in a logic of escalation, much like the war on drugs, - a logic consisting in throwing more people, more resources, and more vehicles at the problem. (Payan 56) The US continues to trust the current strategy about the US immigration problem as a border law enforcement challenge. However, based on statistics, undocumented migration through the US-Mexico border has only grown and that there are now between 6 and 12 million undocumented workers in the United States and that based on high and low estimates, most of them are Mexicans. (Payan, p. 57) It appears that the immigration problem – one of the shared border problems – is found many miles away from the demarcation line: in Mexican towns and cities of migrants’ origin and in the US fields and cities where migrants find job. According to Andreas and Snyder, to assume the solution to the immigration flows will be found solely through the border controls is a partial and myopic view. (141) Indeed, regardless of the sovereign right of nations to erect fences, and employ enforcers to drive away illegal migrants, to people who want to cross, the border becomes just an obstacle along the way. That is why a number of observers see the improvement of labor opportunities in Mexico as the solution to the border-relegated immigration problem. The Border Development Plan, for instance, reiterated the need to improve the socio-economic conditions along the border. It maintained that this objective would allow several important positive results, including increased employment opportunities in the border, which could curb illegal immigration on the Mexican side and upgrade the standard of living on the American side, in effect, lessening criminal behavior which usually stems from poverty. (Baker Policy4) As it is, border communities are overburdened socially and economically by an influx of unemployed migrants and that respective regional and national governments cannot provide sufficient support to offset the cost of law enforcement and social services needed to reduce the negative impact of such migrants on the local social fabric. Drug Trade Recently, there had been fears that Mexico is on a spiral descent towards the path that Colombia took because of the proliferation of illegal drug trade. Unfortunately, this fear is not unfounded. There is now a break-down of security in the country due to drug-related violence. In 2008 alone, 6,290 deaths were attributed to drug trade – a figure that is higher than the casualties in the war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan. (Felbab-Brown 1) The significance of this development in the US-Mexico border discourse lies in three important repercussions. First, there is the fact that the border serves as a transit point of illegal drugs entry to the United States from Latin America. (Chabat 135) Presently, it appears that the dilemma has achieved a higher degree of seriousness and that it is finding its way to the US border communities. Felbab-Brown wrote: Border patrol officers are increasingly confronted by drug traffickers with firepower. Perhaps as much as 90% of the firearms used by Mexican drug trafficking organizations have been purchased in the United States. Murders and kidnapping of US residents who (or whose relatives) are caught up in the drug trade have increased dramatically. So has the kidnappings of illegal immigrants who, sometimes snatched en masse from coyotes (people smugglers), are held for ransom to be extorted from their relatives in the United States. (2) The two other effects are suffered by Mexico. The first of which is the exodus, not just of the elite, but recently, of the middle class to the US because of the deteriorating security situation. Then, there is the effect on the economy. Mexican states affected by violence, wrote Felbab-Brown, have begun experiencing reduced economic activity in terms of reduced investment, tourism and the dramatic escalation in transaction costs such as protection rents, ransoms, and costs of bodyguard. (2) As democratic societies, Mexico and the United States seek to develop their human and material capabilities in ways that meet the needs of their respective societies. The 2009 Border Development Plan argued that such development cannot proceed efficiently and effectively when people fear for their security, either as citizens of a nation under attack or as individuals subject to domestic harassment, violence, corruption, or a paucity of material goods and services that meet basic human needs. (3) Homeland Security The Mexican drug problem is one of the reasons for the escalation of the US border law enforcement, making the border area one of the crucial spots covered by American homeland security. The drug trade and those crimes that it entails became a controversial issue on the American domestic front to the point that it has become extremely politicized in the recent years. This is the reason why the billions of dollars have been rammed down the border. The other border-related threat is that posed by international terrorism. This dimension to the border-security has been highlighted when, in July 2001, someone dumped 32 kiloliters of insecticide into the water supply of the Mexican town of Rancho de la Tapia. (Forest, p. 119) The incident occurred at night and went unnoticed until the victims began manifesting symptoms of illness. The attack victimized 18 people. While this incident was confined to the state of Chihuahua in Mexico alone and did not affect the US, the fact remained that there is a vulnerability in the border in terms of security because of shared resources, among other variables. More enterprising terrorists could target a bigger area from either side of the water resource and claim lives from both the American and Mexican sides. The 9/11 terrorist attacks in America also prompted the US to enforce greater border patrol. Because of this, it was deemed necessary to construct and maintain adequate physical and human infrastructure in the US and Mexican borders. If one travels to the US-Mexico border today, he or she would find a marked difference from the way it was a decade ago. The boundary fence with gaping holes in San Diego area, for instance, was gone and in its place stands a steel wall increasingly coupled with a second tier of fencing, in tandem with sophisticated technology that enables Border Patrol to detect unauthorized migrants crossing the border. (Nevins130) Critics, however, believed that such semblance of maintaining order in the border with the construction of similar walls as that in the San Diego Sector was just for appearance sake and that immigrants would find more ways to circumvent the border security. Peter Andreas (1998), a political scientist, offered an invaluable insight in this regard: How [the US] Congress and the broader public feel about the integrity of the border is arguably as important as the actual deterrent effect on the border. The deterrence functions of borders has always been as much about image as reality, a political fiction providing an appearance of control that helps reproduce and reinforce state legitimacy. Indeed, the very premise of the current push to regain control of the border reinforces the myth that the border was actually controlled in the first place. In short, policing the boundary are much about performance as they are about fulfilling a particular task. Andreas added that the border also perpetuates the myth that the problem and the solution are located in the area rather than having to confront the problems of formally managing a transnational labor market. In other words, statecraft in this case is not merely about curbing illegal immigration but about propping up state claims to territorial authority. However the case is, the physical and human infrastructure in the border is proven to have maintained a semblance of order in the border as demonstrated by the San Diego Sector experience. Whether this is the appropriate solution or not, Americans see its short-term merits and this in itself is reassuring. Unless a major breach occur that would demonstrate the futility of these border infrastructures, the infrastructure and the policy behind is expected to remain. Shared Resources The homeland security threats concerning the US-Mexico border do not only revolve on terrorism and the services and threats from abroad in the wider context of the US border discourse. Threats also appear in the context of shared resources such as water. One should remember that the US-Mexico border is a desert border and that it is home to several major population centers on both the US and Mexico’s sides. These areas in the borderland depend on water for survival. Shared water is, hence, is a major topic in the relations between the two countries. The territory is categorized as the area dependent on the mutual water basins and aquifers and that of this drainage region, 63 percent falls within US territory and 37 percent falls within Mexican territory. (Forest 119) As the population grows in the border zone, the water problem becomes more and more prominent as inhabitants begin to experience shortages. In 2001, the population in the area was approximately 12 million both from the US and Mexican sides and that by 2021, this figure is expected to swell to a staggering 24 million. (Forest 119) At this time, the main aquifer that supply the cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, will almost be exhausted. Shared resources also underscore the shared environmental conditions which result to shared health issues in the border zone. This is what is being addressed by the Health Border 2010. This policy statement outlined 20 priority health indicators that would assist the prioritization of health issues and the design of health programs to address the issues. (Health Border 2) Conclusion Current developments, particularly in the area of international terrorism, globalization, and illegal drug trade made the border landscape particularly unstable and volatile. The situation highlights problems and concerns coming from both Mexico and the US. While a significant amount of these dilemma emerge from the former, the US cannot simply ignore or leave Mexico to fend for its troubles. There is the border that they share, after all. As Mexico suffers, there would always be the possibility that such predicament would find its way to the US soil. No amount of physical and human barrier in the border could deter this as was proven by the increasing number of immigrants that entered the US despite the infrastructures that has been setup to stop this. The promise today of the seamless border is gone, wrote the Baker Institute, and that it is only likely to regain traction with a concerted and proactive policy to address existing problems of human and physical infrastructure and improved procedures and funding for law enforcement. (2) And so, it appears that the collaboration of the US and Mexican governments is the ultimate solution in addressing the border-related issues. In the examination of the existing problems and threats in the area, one finds that most of them are interrelated and feed on each other. Immigration is an offshoot of security threats from crimes that are bred by poverty and drug trade, which, in turn, is caused by economic problems, and so forth. Everything is going around in circles and the cycle cannot be broken if either the US or Mexico is not cooperative even in just one border-issue. Finally, existing domestic policies should also be evaluated. For instance, there is the focus in the US on its border law enforcement that is proven to be not that effective. The border problem has plagued the border zone for several decades already. Policymakers should know by now that there must be some mistakes in the existing policies. A review of the above factors and subsequent steps to address them could yield significant developments towards improving the region. Works Cited Andreas, Peter, "The Escalation of U.S. Immigration Control in the Post-NAFTA Era." Political Science Quarterly. 113: 4, p. 591-615. Andreas, Peter and Snyder, Timothy. The wall around the West: state borders and immigration controls in North America and Europe. Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Baker Institute. Developing the US-Mexico Border Region for a Prosperous and Secure Relationship. Baker Institute for Public Policy of Rice University [Author] April 2009. Vol. 38. Chabat, Jorge. “Mexicos War on Drugs: No Margin of Maneuver.” Annals, AAPSS. Jul 2002. 582: 134-149. Felbab-Brown, Vanda. "The Violent Drug Market in Mexico and Lessons from Colombia.” Brookings Institution. Mar. 2009. 12. Forest, James. Homeland Security: Critical infrastructure. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. Healthy Border 2010. Health Border 2010. United States-Mexico Border Health Comission, 2003. Nevins, Joseph. Operation Gatekeeper: the rise of the "illegal alien" and the making of the U.S.-Mexico boundary. New York: Routledge, 2002. Payan, Tony. The three U.S.-Mexico border wars: drugs, immigration, and Homeland Security. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. Read More