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 Editorials | June 2008 
Corruption Worsens Border Woes
 Dallas Morning News
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 |  | Officers on the take from people smugglers quickly become susceptible to the corrupting influences of drug and arms traffickers and money launderers. |  | | | |
It should surprise no one that people smugglers along the U.S.-Mexico border are adopting the same routes and tactics employed by major drug traffickers. Illegal immigrants are willing to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to ride in the hollowed-out spaces and false bottoms of vehicles crossing the border.
For smuggling groups, human cargo is highly profitable and far less risky than moving drugs. For immigrants, this is the quickest and surest way to get into the United States. Studies in recent years indicate that as border enforcement tightens, demand jumps for these smugglers. So do profits. According to one U.S. specialist, Mexican border smugglers are sitting atop a $5 billion industry.
That's why corruption is growing rapidly among the U.S. border patrol officers charged with stopping it. Like drug traffickers, people smugglers are targeting American law enforcement personnel whose low pay makes them susceptible to the lure of bribery. When enforcers look the other way and wave smuggling vehicles through, America's illegal immigrant population grows.
According to a recent New York Times report, the Department of Homeland Security now has more than 200 open cases against border-area U.S. law enforcement personnel. Texas is, by far, the leader, with 157 cases being prosecuted against border guards in the past five years. The state's corruption caseload has nearly quadrupled since 2003.
Officers on the take from people smugglers quickly become susceptible to the corrupting influences of drug and arms traffickers and money launderers. Increasing the pay of border patrol officers can go only so far in solving the problem.
A better way to halt this scourge is through comprehensive reform of America's immigration laws, giving immigrant workers greater access to legal jobs in this country though a guest-worker program.
There needs to be a well-structured system that tells immigrant workers: If you abide by the system, you can come out of the shadows and work legally. Tougher workplace enforcement, coupled with a well-defined pathway to regularization for existing immigrants, would help thin the ranks of illegal migrants and reduce demand for people smugglers.
Congress' failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform is a major reason smuggling rings are thriving and corruption among our border officials is rising. Immigration reform won't halt corruption, but it will dramatically reduce the illicit market that keeps the smugglers in business. |
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