Homeland security is inherently transnational today. There’s hardly anything adverse that happens in our homeland that doesn’t have a cause or effect that’s generated abroad. Increasingly.
ALAN BERSINIf you build a 50-foot wall, you’ll soon be confronted with a 51-foot ladder.
More Alan Bersin Quotes
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Four out of five border-crossers detained in South Texas are Guatemalan, Honduran or Salvadoran. They are driven by violence and poverty in their home countries and the desire for family reunification.
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The air passenger screening system Mexico has in place involves these checks against US national security and criminal data bases.
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In the last generation we’ve moved past a U.S.-Mexico relationship that while friendly on the surface, and demilitarized for the most part, really was not a genuinely cooperative relationship.
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In large part this is because of the success of policies followed by the United States to create an environment, a peaceful period in history in which economies could grow and countries could benefit.
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Twenty-nine US states depend on Mexico as their primary export market.
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The nationalism and the protectionism that was built into the Mexican Revolution in 1910 and that characterized the Mexican attitude to the United States for much of the 20th century were difficult to overcome. But that actually has occurred. And the cooperation.
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We have a combined population of half a billion people; peaceful trade-friendly borders that are the envy of the world.
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Every air traveler entering Mexico is vetted against US databases.
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I think there’s no question that the barriers, the fences and in certain urban areas, the walls, have had an important effect in terms of increasing the manageability and the security of the border.
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We make things together. We have shared production platforms.
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The potential of Mexico, Canada and the United States is enormous.
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And we have to work together to secure the continent in order to keep dangerous people and dangerous things out and strengthen perimeter security on a continental basis.
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And the smuggling of cash and the money laundering that transnational criminal organizations have instituted in North America, including in the United States.
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An increasing number of Mexican companies are creating jobs in the United States.
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It has gone from being a sending country for migrants to a transit country, and increasingly a receiving country for migrants in its own right.
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Until we have a legitimate labor market between Mexico and the United States, people will attempt to come here to work.
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For the first time since the second World War, we are not the sole dominant economy in the world.
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Migrants come up and no longer seek to evade the Border Patrol, but are actually left at the border by their smugglers.
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This is true despite the significant poverty, and the class and geographic inequality that have deep historical roots.
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The idea was to restore the rule of law, to bring order to a chaotic situation.
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We have to secure the flow of goods and people by engaging with foreign entities.
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The results became more and more apparent. Crime rates went down in the border region.
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During the last eight to 10 years there have been continued efforts which have resulted in a strategic alliance with the Mexicans and improved safety and security at the border.
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As former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pointed out, if you build a 50-foot wall, you’ll soon be confronted with a 51-foot ladder.
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But in fact as Secretary of Homeland Security General John Kelly acknowledged at his confirmation hearing, walls and barriers alone are insufficient to insure security.
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Migration should take place in accordance with lawful norms and secure and safe procedures.
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