Border issues

After having lived eight years in Tucson, I hear stories about Mexican border issues with a higher interest level than when I lived elsewhere. Much of the high crime rate in Tucson is attributed to the drug traffic and traffickers dealing in Mexican "imports", both human and pharmacological. Now that the former governor of Arizona is Secretary of Homeland Security, these stories have double the interest to me.

The other morning I was listening to NPR on my commute, and a story came on about Napolitano working with the president of Mexico and his administration to find ways to stop illegal border crossings and drug traffic..

But I am of the opinion that the Mexican government really doesn't care. Why should they? In the U.S., we care about people moving out of our area, because it means a lower tax base for supporting our city/county infrastructure. We want residents to occupy homes in Youngstown. Yes, we want to get rid of abandoned, delapidated-beyond-repair homes, but the fact that those homes will no longer bring in tax revenue, multiplied by the number of homes that stand abandoned, is a major concern.

But why should the Mexican government care if hundreds of people cross the border to trek across the Arizona desert, leaving their detritus behind? Doesn't that just mean a hundred more people that the Mexican government doesn't have to care for, doesn't have to provide services for?

And why should they care about the drug trade? Aren't their bribes to be collected, friends to be made for ignoring it?

Really, what is the incentive for the Mexican government to try to stop drug trafficking? There's such an incredible amount—mind-boggling, really—of money to be made in that "industry". Isn't trying to stop it a bigger job than that government is up to? Just try to break the problem down to the component issues; it's not just about the drugs themselves. There are issues of money, power, control, ….

I don't know how the U.S. government can stop either of these problems. Bigger minds than mine have failed in trying to halt it. But sometimes I just find the concept of the U.S. government trying to work with the Mexican government laughable.