Border security is vital for preventing criminals, drugs, and illegal immigrants entering a country. The porous border with Mexico has exposed the United States to floods of migrants who threaten to overwhelm its ability to absorb them into its law-abiding culture. The problem for both countries is exacerbated by out-of-control drug consumption in the United States, which encourages the smuggling, cultivation, and production of drugs in Mexico. The money earned by the drug cartels in turn allows them to bankroll violent thugs who threaten security forces and to bribe officials undermining the rule of law.
The United States should close the border and build a wall to prevent crossings. This would place Mexico at no greater disadvantage in its trade relations with the United States than other countries that have no land border with the United States. It would force drug smugglers onto the high seas and into airports, where they could be more easily intercepted. The Mexican drug cartels would be starved of the cash they need to pay murder squads and bribe officials. Re-establishing the rule of law would increase Mexico’s prosperity far more than any benefits gained from having the border open.
Passports
Passports with chips that store biometric information are useless gimmicks. Optical fiber cables allow instantaneous queries to databases located anywhere in the world, so there is no need to store data on a chip held by the very person being scrutinized.
Passports should be eliminated through the combined use of biometrics and networks. A visitor’s file should be retained by the countries he visits. Thus, instead of the United States relying on passports issued by corrupt countries like Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, it should create and maintain its own secure database for tracking both its own citizens and visiting foreigners. In the United States, the practice of fingerprinting of new arrivals is a step in the right direction. Treaties should be established allowing the exchange of data between countries so that each side can review information held by each other.
By properly using existing technology, international travel can be made so secure that terrorists, murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug couriers, and illegal immigrants are unable to travel without being detected and apprehended.
