U.S. - Mexico Border: Border Security Ten Years After

From 'Border Lines,' the blog of the TransBorder Project of the Center for International Policy. The report hits all the nails on the head: the failures of security focused border programs, the immigration crackdown and the drug war. 

Policy on the Edge: Problems with Border Security and New Directions for Border Control is a new policy report from the Center for International Policy that is online at: 

http://www.ciponline.org/CIP_Publications/Barry_IPR_Failures_Border_Security_fulltext.html  

The report's conclusion is excerpted below.

Border Lines: Border Security Ten Years After: "Ten years after our rush to secure our borders, it is time to review, evaluate and change course.

A border security juggernaut swept across the Southwest borderland, leaving in its wake new fears, insecurities and alarm. As billions of dollars are spent to increase security at the border, fear and alarm about the insecurity of the border have deepened since 9/11, along with strident demands that the government do still more.

Continuing down the same course of border security buildups, drug wars and immigration crackdowns will do nothing to increase security or safety. It will only keep border policy on the edge—teetering without direction or strategy.

Without addressing border policy in conjunction with drug policy, the drugs we consume will continue to be the product of transborder organized crime and bloodletting south of the border. Without addressing immigration reform, we face a future of immigrant bashing, divided communities, stalled economies and more immigrant prisons rising up on the edges of our towns."