No one now seriously debates there is a crisis on our southern border.
Every day, thousands of migrants, most from Central and South America, attempt to cross the Rio Grande after walking more than a thousand miles from home countries where violence, corruption and autocracy are destroying any chance at a decent life.
The United States spends tens of billions of dollars a year on immigration enforcement. The state of Texas has itself committed $10 billion to Operation Lone Star, a controversial effort to slow migration. The state and federal government, along with Mexico, are now locked in a legal struggle over Gov. Greg Abbott’s border enforcement efforts, including massive buoys strung along various points of the river.
The struggle is misplaced. The United States cannot resolve the border crisis at the border. We are treating the symptom, not the disease that is the collapse of rule of law and democracy throughout much of Latin America.
In a series of editorials and op-eds this year, we will explore the root causes of migration from Latin America.
We will look at the failures of U.S. policy in the region and the danger that weak U.S. engagement has created, opening a path for Russia and China to increase their influence in the Western Hemisphere.
And we will offer possible policy and diplomacy solutions that, over time, might help create a new beginning for a part of the world where suffering is so profound that people will leave everything behind to walk a dangerous and uncertain path to the banks of a muddy river for the possibility of a life where there is hope.
