Week 3 Responses

Good Evening Class and Professor,

This week we are posed with a difficult question "Is it cost effective from a risk analysis perspective to spend billions of dollars to stop a “hand-full of people" who are bound to terrorize the United States?" I think this question is as much of a moral and ethical dilemma as it is a fiscal one. On the fiscal side, I would assert that yes, the cost associated with "hardening" the border to stop the flow of dangerous people and substances across our border is money well spent. While not every person who comes across the U.S. border intends to do any one harm, there are those who have/will. Additionally, the people who come here for a better life do not automatically receive it as their foot touches down on American soil. There are often years of hardship, working multiple jobs, and poor living conditions. Which lends itself to the family requiring government assistance. Additionally, most of the illegal opiates, including synthetic versions such as fentanyl, come into the U.S. from Mexico. While some may have forgotten about the opioid crisis our country was in the midst of prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly 100,000 people have died in the last year from the opioids (CDC, 2020). So the ethical and moral question is how many American lives does it take to offset the cost of hardening our borders?  

Dr. Steven Flynn (2004), Commander, U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.), described the paradoxes between hardened and open borders in his testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Dr. Flynn describes the "Hardened Border Paradox" as the cause and effect of instituting additional security measures at the border. He asserted, as more measures were put into place to deter illegal border crossings, the need arose for guides who are familiar with the area and the terrain to lead the immigrants through the harsh terrain that is not suitable for a border fence/wall. Essentially, our actions caused the coyote enterprise to grow and expand to the level it is at today. Conversely, the "Open Border Paradox" is the result of increased free trade legislation that encourages the importation of goods. This creates a back log at legal ports of entry, potentially creating hours long delays as all of the vehicles are searched and cleared by U.S. Customs officials. In business, time is money! Large manufacturing industries could be losing millions of dollars because they are trying to bring their goods in the legal way. This could open the door for less legit means of getting their goods into the U.S. i.e. smuggling. 

 -Fred Roberts

References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Overdose Deaths Accelerating During COVID-19. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p1218-overdose-deaths-covid-19.html.

Flynn, S. E. (2004). Rethinking the role of the U.S. Mexican border in the post-9/11 world. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/report/rethinking-role-us-mexican-border-post-911-world