We can’t defend the country by looking at the borderline as the first line of defense rather than as the last line of defense.
ALAN BERSINWe have a combined population of half a billion people; peaceful trade-friendly borders that are the envy of the world.
More Alan Bersin Quotes
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We have to remember that information sharing is restricted by legal barriers and cultural barriers and by the notion that information is power and therefore should be hoarded so if you share information you can extract something in exchange.
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In today’s digital online world, those who don’t share information will be isolated and left behind.
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Six million jobs in the US depend on trade with Mexico. Ten border states – six in Mexico and four in the United States – combined have the third or fourth largest economy in the world.
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There are plainclothes US officers stationed at airports in Mexico working with Mexican immigration officials to protect the United States.
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Mexico has become a robust democracy with a robust press and an active legislature.
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More Mexicans are leaving through deportation and voluntary return than are entering the United States legally and illegally.
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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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We have to secure the flow of goods and people by engaging with foreign entities.
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We should be wary, particularly with our closest friends and allies, of breaking down the trust and confidence that lie at the foundation of relationships.
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Every air traveler entering Mexico is vetted against US databases.
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Not only are the numbers of migrants entering the United States at the lowest levels in a generation, but they are now largely Central American.
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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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There have been enormous advances since 9/11 to build a very robust set of targeting procedures and watch lists to screen travelers coming to the United States.
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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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This is true despite the significant poverty, and the class and geographic inequality that have deep historical roots.
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In the last two years, the Mexicans have detained nearly 400,000 migrants whose intent was to come to the United States.
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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.
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That’s the way in which they get entry into a system that will eventually release them into the country.
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The results became more and more apparent. Crime rates went down in the border region.
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And there are places on the border, such as the Arizona desert or the open terrain around the Big Bend in South Texas, where Mother Nature has created her own barrier that is not easily passable. Or if you do pass through it, you are easily detected.
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Cross-border trade is part of a single production process, and while apparently the Trump administration will seek to re-examine elements of that production platform, it is what it is and won’t be easily dismantled.
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Mexico now has the 13th largest economy in the world.
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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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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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Trust and confidence that have been built is not something that should be abandoned without great consideration for the potentially grave consequences to the United States.
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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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