The Obama administration is once again throwing curveballs to the American public on their policy for dealing with the Mexican drug cartels. They are constantly stating that the border is safe and secure. This July there were new directives issued that would supposedly help curtail the drugs coming into America from Mexico.
One of these new directives requires gun dealers in the Southwestern border states, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, to file a report with ATF when a person buys two or more semiautomatic rifles within five days. The administration sees this as an attempt to disrupt the weapon trafficking networks that divert firearms to the gun cartels.
Also, in July Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske, and US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin came up with a new strategy to deal with the drug runners coming across the border into America. This strategy only focuses on drug prevention and gives little attention to the unsecured border. Napolitano stated at this meeting that "we have been devoting really unprecedented efforts to making sure that the border is safe and secure," which is why she felt that the school programs were emphasized.
Everyone interviewed strongly felt that Napolitano's statement was completely false and the administration needs to make the border secure and safe. Although education and prevention are a component, demand will always be a factor and the immediate problem is not going to be solved by school anti-drug programs. Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne cited the fact that last year, just in the Tucson sector, there were 400,000 who crossed the border. Leo Banks, an Arizona journalist, stressed that there are fewer workers coming across, but there are more corridors that are out of control, with more drug traffickers "who are a nasty bunch, bolder, more violent, more sophisticated, and unafraid." There are isolated incidents spilling over into the US from kidnappings and murders, to bullets flying across the border. In Arizona Horne told of incidents of drug cartel violence: a beheading in Chandler, a policeman and one of his investigators shot, and a rancher killed.
