The drug trade is an international problem that requires an international solution. Crime and violence, on the other hand, are national and local problems that can be addressed by local policymakers.via Investor Insight: Is Mexicos Drug War Doomed To Failure? –...
Read MoreAs the immigration debate heads into a crucial period on Capitol Hill, Americans have been convinced.By both sides.In a new USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll, three of four people agree with big arguments made by proponents of legislation that would allow millions of undocumented workers to stay in the United States legally: that deporting them isn’t realistic, that granting them legal status would boost the U.S. economy, that most are hardworking and deserve an opportunity to stay.At the same time, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed also agree with big arguments made by opponents: that granting undocumented workers legal status would drain government services and that doing so would encourage more foreigners to come to the U.S. illegally.Just about everybody — more than eight in 10 Americans — endorse views on both sides of the argument. That could make the politics harder when it comes to striking a final deal this year, a time widely seen as the best chance in a generation to overhaul the nation’s immigration system.via Poll shows Americans conflicted over immigration...
Read MoreOUR report this week from the Mexican-American border points out that Mexicans are becoming too bourgeois to cross illegally into the United States. These days they’d rather stay in high school than risk deserts, rattlesnakes, murderous bandidos and La Migra as the gringo migration authorities are known just to bus tables north of the border. In fact, according to an exhaustive report in May by North American experts, known as the Regional Migration Study Group, Mexicans are much more likely to have a degree before going north than they were seven years ago, and the number of years of schooling of 15-19-year-olds is now pretty similar to that in United States. If more educated workers emigrate, it raises their earning capacity, which gives them and their families even more chance of rising up the ranks of the middle class when they and the money flow back to Mexico. In which case, even fewer will need to go to el Norte. That is real progress.via Mexico’s middle class: Too bourgeois to bus tables | The...
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A focal point of the legislation. Republican senators insisted on stricter measures to secure the border with Mexico before they could support the bill.What’s in the billWould require the Department of Homeland Security to submit new plans to Congress within six months to increase border agents and surveillance and extend fencing, before any undocumented immigrants could begin the path to citizenship.After five years, if the border authorities have not expanded surveillance across the southwest border and reached 90 percent effectiveness in stopping illegal crossers, a border commission would be formed to advise on further efforts to achieve those goals.After...
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Six years ago this month, re-election campaign looming, Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana joined 15 other Democrats to shoot down an overhaul of the immigration system, which she said encouraged “illegal behavior” with “a generous path to citizenship” for “people who have broken the law to enter this country.”Ms. Landrieu’s next campaign is already upon her. Republicans have made her a prime target in their quest to retake the Senate in 2014. But on immigration, her tone has changed markedly, as has what she called her own internal political compass.“Sometimes it just takes awhile for issues to marinate,”...
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