Smuggler Nation (75 page)

28
. U.S. Border Patrol, “Border Patrol Strategic Plan 1994 and Beyond: National Strategy” (Washington, DC: U.S. Border Patrol, July 1994).

29
. William Branigin, “Reaping Abuse for What They Sew,”
Washington Post
, 16 February 1997.

30
.
Migration News
, April 1996;
Migration News
, November 1998.

31
. For a more detailed account, see David Spener, “Smuggling Migrants Through South Texas: Challenges Posed by Operation Rio Grande,” in
Global Human Smuggling
, ed. David Kyle and Rey Koslowski (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).

32
.
Migration News
, February 1997.

33
.
Migration Between Mexico and the United States: Binational Study
(Mexico City and Washington, DC: Mexican Foreign Ministry and U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, 1997), 28.

34
.
Migration News
, April 2011. According to another estimate, 3.3 million unauthorized Mexicans immigrants settled in the United States between 1990 and 1999. See David Spener,
Clandestine Crossings: Migrants and Coyotes on the Texas-Mexico Border
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009), 9.

35
. Jesse Katz and Tony Perry, “Smugglers of Immigrants Fill Growing Demand,”
Los Angeles Times
, 7 April 1996.

36
. Sebastian Rotella, “Tough Border Policies a Boon for Smugglers,”
Los Angeles Times
, 5 February 1995.

37
. News conference with Doris Meissner and Janet Reno,
Federal News Service
, 12 January 1996.

38
. Quoted in Sebastian Rotella, “Station of Dreams: Tijuana Bus Terminal Haven for Immigrant Smuggling Rings,”
Los Angeles Times
, 11 May 1992.

39
. Rotella, “Tough Border Policies a Boon for Smugglers.”

40
. For a detailed account of the relationship between migrants and smugglers, see Spener,
Clandestine Crossings
.

41
. Quoted in Sam Dillon, “Smuggling Ring Smashed,”
New York Times
, 30 May 1996.

42
. Sebastian Rotella,
Twilight on the Line: Underworlds and Politics at the Mexican Border
(New York: Norton, 1998), 75–78.

43
.
Annual Report of the Office of the United States Attorney, Southern District of California
(Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 1996).

44
. International Organization for Migration, “Organized Crime Moves into Migrant Trafficking,”
Trafficking in Migrants Quarterly Bulletin
No. 11, June 1996.

45
. More generally, Gootenberg argues that the unintended cumulative impact of U.S. drug enforcement over many decades was to push the cocaine trade ever closer to the United States. See Paul Gootenberg, “Cocaine’s Long March North, 1900–2010,”
Latin American Politics and Society
54, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 159–80.

46
. Quoted in John Moore, “No Quick Fix,”
National Journal
19 (November 1987): 2957.

47
. Testimony of Admiral Paul Yost, U.S. Coast Guard, before the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control,
U.S. Narcotics Control Efforts in Mexico and on the Southwest Border
, 99th Cong., 2d sess., July 1986, 34.

48
. See Senate Subcommittee,
Southwest Border Law Enforcement and Trade
, 19 August 1987, 25.

49
. Senate Subcommittee,
Southwest Border Law Enforcement and Trade
, 25, 191, 200.

50
. Senate Subcommittee,
Southwest Border Law Enforcement and Trade
, 191, 202.

51
. Statement of Russell L. Jones, president of Richard L. Jones Customhouse Brokers, before Senate Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
Southwest Border Law Enforcement and Trade
, 100th Cong., 1st sess., 19 August 1987, 143–44.

52
. House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control,
Southwest Border Hearings (El Paso, Texas, Tucson, Arizona, San Diego, California) and Mexico Trip Report (Nogales, Mexico City, Culiacan)
, 99th Cong., 2d sess., 12–19 January 1986, 3.

53
. Maria Celia Toro, “Drug Trafficking from a National Security Perspective,” in
Mexico: In Search of Security
, ed. Bruce M. Bagley and Sergio Aguayo Quezada (Coral Gables, FL: North South Center, University of Miami, 1993), 326.

54
. State Department estimates cited in Peter H. Smith, “Semiorganized International Crime: Drug Trafficking in Mexico,” in
Transnational Crime in the Americas
, ed. Tom Farer (New York: Routledge, 1999), 195.

55
. Congressional Research Service,
Drug Interdiction: U.S. Programs, Policy, and Options for Congress
, report prepared by the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, September 1996, proceeds of a seminar held by the Congressional Research Service, 12 December 1995, 19–20.

56
. Office of National Drug Control Policy,
National Drug Control Strategy
(1991), 102–3.

57
. Oversight Hearing on Border Drug Interdiction, Senate Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government, Committee on Appropriations,
Border Drug Interdiction
, 103d Cong., 1st sess., 25 February 1993, 133.

58
. U.S. Department of State,
Department of State Dispatch
, 26 November 1990, 294.

59
. Tim Golden, “Mexico and Drugs: Was U.S. Napping?”
New York Times
, 11 July 1997.

60
. Quoted in Douglas Farah and Molly Moore, “Mexican Drug Traffickers Eclipse Colombian Cartels,”
Washington Post
, 30 March 1997.

61
. General Accounting Office,
Drug Control: Counternarcotics Efforts in Mexico (Appendix II: Comments from the Drug Enforcement
Administration)
(Washington, DC: General Accounting Office, June 1996), 26.

62
. Tom Gjelten, “Mexican Military Will Help Fight Drug Wars,” National Public Radio,
Morning Edition
, 23 May 1995.

63
. Sam Dillon, “Victory or Deceit?”
New York Times
, 12 May 1996.

64
. “Time for Retreat?”
Economist
, 8 March 1997, 44–47.

65
. Donald Schulz,
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The United States, Mexico, and the Agony of National Security
, Strategic Studies Institute Special Report (Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 24 June 1997), 4.

66
. Department of State,
International Narcotics Control Strategy Report
(Washington, DC: Department of State, March 1999).

67
. Press conference with Barry McCaffrey, director, Office of National Drug Control Policy, and Jorge Madrazo, Mexican attorney general, Washington, DC, 29 January 1997.

68
. Andrew Reding, “Facing Political Reality in Mexico,”
Washington Quarterly
20, no. 4 (1997): 103–17.

69
. Office of National Drug Control Policy,
Report to Congress
, 1:35.

70
. Office of National Drug Control Policy,
National Drug Control Strategy Report
(Washington, DC: Office of National Drug Control Policy, 1999), 69–70.

71
. Quoted in Tim Weiner with Tim Golden, “Free Trade Treaty May Widen Traffic in Drugs, U.S. Says,”
New York Times
, 24 May 1993.

72
. Weiner with Golden, “Free Trade Treaty May Widen Traffic in Drugs, U.S. Says”; Tim Golden, “Mexican Drug Connection Grows as Cocaine Supplier to U.S.,”
New York Times
, 30 July 1995.

73
. Christopher S. Wren, “U.S. Drug Chief Seeks Overhaul of Strategy to Stop Illegal Flow from Mexico,”
New York Times
, 20 September 1998.

74
. See Peter Andreas, “When Policies Collide: Market Reform, Market Prohibition, and the Narcotization of the Mexican Economy,” in
The Illicit Global Economy and State Power
, ed. H. Richard Friman and Peter Andreas (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), 134.

75
. Remarks of Harvey G. Pothier, deputy assistant commissioner, Office of Air Interdiction, U.S. Customs Service, in Congressional Research Service,
Drug Interdiction
, 22.

76
. Customs Service press releases, 26 and 28 February 1996.

77
. Testimony of Barry R. McCaffrey, House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, 106th Cong., 1st sess., 25 February 1999.

78
. For a more detailed discussion, see Marc R. Rosenblum,
U.S. Immigration Policy Since 9/11: Understanding the Stalemate over Comprehensive Immigration Reform
(Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Migration Policy Institute, August 2011).

79
. “U.S. Official Held ‘Drug Smuggling,’”
BBC News
, 19 October 2011.

80
. These and other corruption cases are profiled in Tim Gaynor,
Midnight on the Line: The Secret Life of the U.S.-Mexico Border
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009),
chapter 9
.

81
. For background on border fencing projects, see Blas Nunez-Neto and Yule Kim,
Border Security: Barriers Along the U.S. International Border
(Washington, DC: CRS Report to Congress, updated 13 May 2008).

82
. Marc Lacey, “Arizona Officials, Fed up with U.S. Border Efforts, Seek Donations to Build Border Fence,”
New York Times
, 19 July 2011.

83
. Quoted in Bill Hess, “Military’s Use on the Border Expands,”
Sierra Vista Herald
, 21 April 2005.

84
. Hess, “Military’s Use on the Border Expands.”

85
. Eric Lipton, “Bush Turns to Big Military Contractors for Border Control,”
New York Times
, 18 May 2006. The rush to fund private military contractors to come up with a technological fix for the border proved expensive, and the plan was canceled in early 2011 after already spending an estimated $1 billion. See Rey Koslowski,
The Evolution of Border Controls as a Mechanism to Prevent Illegal Immigration
(Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute, February 2011), 11.

86
. “Message from the Commissioner,” in
National Border Patrol Strategy: Office of Border Patrol
(Washington, DC: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security, 2004).

87
. For a critical evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of such initiatives, see Tom Barry,
International Policy Report: Fallacies of High-Tech Fixes for Border Security
(Washington, DC: Center for International Policy, April 2010), 6.

88
. Quoted in Edward Alden and Bryan Roberts, “Are U.S. Borders Secure?”
Foreign Affairs
90, no. 4 (July/August 2011): 20.

89
. Ken Dermota, “Human Smugglers Launch ‘Coyote Express’ into US,”
Agence France Presse
, 18 May 2007; Richard Marosi, “Border Battle over Illegal Immigration Shifts to Beaches,”
Los Angeles Times
, 24 March 2011.

90
. Eric Lichtblau, “Prosecutions in Immigration Doubled in Last Four Years,”
New York Times
, 29 September 2005.

91
. Tom Barry,
Border Wars
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011), 104.

92
. Nina Bernstein, “Companies Use Immigration Crackdown to Turn a Profit,”
New York Times
, 28 September 2011.

93
. Alden and Roberts, “Are U.S. Borders Secure?” 24.

94
. Damien Cave, “For Mexicans Looking North, a New Calculus Favors Home,”
New York Times
, 5 July 2011.

95
. Douglas S. Massey, “Isolated, Vulnerable, and Broke,”
New York Times
, 4 August 2011.

96
. For these and other estimates, including data sources and methodology used, see Jeffrey S. Passel and D’Vera Cohn,
Unauthorized Immigrant Population: National and State Trends 2010
(Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, 1 February 2011).

97
. Randal C. Archibold, “2-Nation Border Conference Discusses Gun Trafficking,”
New York Times
, 16 August 2008.

98
. The use of private U.S. military contractors made it possible to get around Mexican laws prohibiting foreign military personnel from carrying out operations on Mexican territory. Ginger Thompson, “U.S. Widens Role in Battle Against Mexican Drug Cartels,”
New York Times
, 6 August 2011.