The Border: Little New in Drug War on the Border

CIP Border Lines looks at the history of the drug war waged at the border under the rubric of defending "national security."

Border Lines: Little New in Drug War on the Border: "The border conceived as a defensive line against drug flows from Mexico is nothing new. The counternarcotics operations launched by the Obama administration along the southwestern border are best viewed less as new initiatives and more as new names for the same old law-enforcement responses to the illegal drug market.

Underscoring the persistent and chronic nature of this challenge to border control, they are just the latest in a long series of drug war operations. ...

In the 2009 strategy statement for the border, ONDCP (White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, aka "drug czar") stated: “Drug trafficking across the Southwest border remains an acute threat to our homeland security and one of the top drug control priorities for the United States.” Throughout the strategy document, the ONDCP categorizes illegal drugs as a “transnational threat” coming from “transnational criminal organizations.”"