By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
President Trump’s claim that a wall will stop illegal drugs from coming across the Southwest border ignores a key fact about the international trade.
Most drugs that cross the border are primarily transported into the U.S. through existing border checkpoints using cars and trucks, the Washington Post reports, citing experts on the drug trade.
Nevertheless, Trump continues to tout the wall as a solution to stemming the flow of drugs into the U.S.
“The Wall is a very important tool in stopping drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning our youth (and many others)!” the president tweeted this week. “If the wall is not built, which it will be, the drug situation will NEVER be fixed the way it should be!”
Mexican drug cartels “transport the bulk of their drugs over the Southwest border through ports of entry (POEs) using passenger vehicles or tractor trailers,” the DEA writes in its 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment. “The drugs are typically secreted in hidden compartments when transported in passenger vehicles or comingled with legitimate goods when transported in tractor trailers.”
Drug policy experts say it’s a false narrative to suggest drug smugglers primarily run drugs across remote stretches of the border.
“Smuggling drugs in cars is far easier than carrying them on the backs of people through a really harsh desert terrain,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “The higher the fence will be, the more will go through ports of entry.”
