mysanantonio.com
Express-New Editorial Board
March 14, 2014
Photo By Associated Press file photo
- The United States is having the wrong conversation with Mexico. Legal trade between the two countries is about $494 billion and about 6 million U.S. jobs are dependent on trade with Mexico.
SAN ANTONIO — It has long been apparent that the United States has been having the wrong conversation with and when it comes to Mexico.
We talk of border security, though the United States spent $11.7 billion on that in 2012. And net zero migration — because of the economy and changing demographics in feeder countries, including Mexico — has been the real story.
We talk of immigration reform in a fashion that brings to mind a call to arms. So, in a Senate version of reform, the U.S. would spend $28 billion per year on border security, according to a Bloomberg analysis last year. This is the tradeoff for getting to a pathway to citizenship — or at least legal residency — for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants here.
Meanwhile, House members decry this pathway as “amnesty” and insist that the Senate measure doesn't provide nearly enough security.
Visions of drug cartels and human traffickers plying their trade across the border with impunity are routinely invoked. But we ignore the principles of supply and demand. This country provides the demand.
Our solution? President Barack Obama requested about $25.4 billion for federal drug enforcement for fiscal year 2014, only about 5.5 percent of which would be used for prevention. But, according to the pro-reform Drug Policy Alliance, the total jumps to $51 billion per year when state and local spending on items ranging from drug-related arrests to prison are added.
The result, according to the Sentencing Project, which advocates for sentencing reform, is 498,000 people in federal and state prisons and jails for drug offenses in 2011. And according to state figures, drug offenses in 2012 in Texas accounted for nearly 16 percent of all inmates in state prison and jail. And the drug trade continues unabated.
Here's what gets lost in the histrionics when the topic is Mexico or immigration — including in campaigns for statewide office in Texas:
Roughly $494 billion in legal trade between the two countries in 2012. Mexican investment in the United States increasing from $1.2 billion in 1993 to $12.6 billion in 2010 and about 6 million U.S. jobs dependent on trade with Mexico, according to the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center.
Mexico is second only to Canada in buying U.S. products.
But, no; let's talk about the “invasion” from Mexico and the need for more “security” instead.
We talk of border security, though the United States spent $11.7 billion on that in 2012. And net zero migration — because of the economy and changing demographics in feeder countries, including Mexico — has been the real story.
We talk of immigration reform in a fashion that brings to mind a call to arms. So, in a Senate version of reform, the U.S. would spend $28 billion per year on border security, according to a Bloomberg analysis last year. This is the tradeoff for getting to a pathway to citizenship — or at least legal residency — for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants here.
Meanwhile, House members decry this pathway as “amnesty” and insist that the Senate measure doesn't provide nearly enough security.
Visions of drug cartels and human traffickers plying their trade across the border with impunity are routinely invoked. But we ignore the principles of supply and demand. This country provides the demand.
Our solution? President Barack Obama requested about $25.4 billion for federal drug enforcement for fiscal year 2014, only about 5.5 percent of which would be used for prevention. But, according to the pro-reform Drug Policy Alliance, the total jumps to $51 billion per year when state and local spending on items ranging from drug-related arrests to prison are added.
The result, according to the Sentencing Project, which advocates for sentencing reform, is 498,000 people in federal and state prisons and jails for drug offenses in 2011. And according to state figures, drug offenses in 2012 in Texas accounted for nearly 16 percent of all inmates in state prison and jail. And the drug trade continues unabated.
Here's what gets lost in the histrionics when the topic is Mexico or immigration — including in campaigns for statewide office in Texas:
Roughly $494 billion in legal trade between the two countries in 2012. Mexican investment in the United States increasing from $1.2 billion in 1993 to $12.6 billion in 2010 and about 6 million U.S. jobs dependent on trade with Mexico, according to the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center.
Mexico is second only to Canada in buying U.S. products.
But, no; let's talk about the “invasion” from Mexico and the need for more “security” instead.
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