Two items from today’s news underscores again why one of the highest priorities for the next President must be to secure our nation’s lawless southern border. First, from the AP in Mexico City:

“Mexican drug traffickers are the main suppliers of methamphetamine to the U.S. and produce enormous quantities of the drug despite government crackdowns, according to a recent U.S. Justice Department report. … Mexico now requires prescriptions for medicines that contain pseudoephedrine and blocks over-the-counter sales of the decongestant. But traffickers have adapted by using alternate routes to smuggle restricted chemicals into Mexico, importing non-restricted precursor chemicals and mislabeling substances to trick customs officials, the Justice Department report said. Mexican cartels are also increasingly distributing the drugs themselves in U.S. markets such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas, according to the report, selling directly through street gangs and bypassing established networks.”

 Now we know many in this country want to legalize marijuana, but are those same people really ready to legalize meth? Meth is the fastest growing drug in the United States   (pdf) and the effects of a meth overdose are similar to those seen after a traumatic brain injury.  The precursor drugs for meth are easily carried on a person so as long as our federal government refuses to shut down illegal immigration at the border, Mexico will continue to make sure meth is cheap and easy to abuse here in the United States.

Our second sory comes from southern California where the Orange County Register reports on Officer Augie Rocha whole day policing the behavior of illegal day laborers. From the OC:

“The laborers gather in parking lots, in front of stores and on sidewalks to solicit work. As soon as Rocha rolls up in his police car, dozens of men dissipate. Some stare at Rocha but most avert their eyes and slowly walk away. … Business owners have erected signs in attempts to keep the laborers from soliciting on their private property. Citations have been given out for nuisances ranging from urinating in public to jaywalking. Even now – nearly 18 years after the opening of the city’s Resource Center job site – the city is trying to figure out how to deal with the issue.”

Local governments can not and should not be forced to dedicate these resources to enforcing our nations immigration laws. This is a federal responsibility and the federal government needs to solve this problem at the border. If they don’t, new immigrants will continue to enter the country illegal. A new Reason article proudly claims: “Guest worker programs may be the best hope many of the world’s poorest people have for improving their lives.”  And they are no doubt correct: the world’s poor definitely benefit when they make it to American soil. But there in lies the big lie behind ‘a path to citizenship’/amnesty. It does not solve our problem but deepens it instead. Since the poor will always benefit by immigrating to America, a path/amnesty will only make the problem worse by establishing a de facto dry foot policy: make it to the United States and we will never send you home.

Reason naively believes that Americans will have the political will to force guest workers home when there time is up. Americans don’t. Immigrants invariably mix and mingle with the native populace (which is good, we want them to assimilate) and end up forming bonds (families) that make the trip back to their original country unpalatable.