Pubdate: Wed, 06 Aug 2014
Source: Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Column: Higher Ground
Copyright: 2014 C.E.G.W./Times-Shamrock
Contact:  http://www.metrotimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1381
Author: Valerie Vande Panne

WHY GRANTING CHILDREN REFUGEE STATUS ISN'T ENOUGH

There is much talk these days, on a local and national level, of what 
to do with the 40,000-plus children at the U.S.-Mexican border. Like 
it or not, some of those kids are being placed with their family 
members or social service organizations right here in southeast Michigan.

The United Nations calls them refugees, and some locals call them an invasion.

The truth is that these children are indeed refugees - refugees of 
our War on Drugs.

Sonia Nazario, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Enrique's 
Journey, a story about a boy from Honduras on his quest to reunite 
with his mother in the United States, embarked on a four-country 
journey with him 10 years ago, and recently went back to see how 
things had changed. She discussed it on a recent episode of The Daily 
Show With Jon Stewart.

Ten years ago, Nazario explained to Stewart, the youth were fleeing 
poverty and seeking to reunite with the parent who came here to help 
the family escape poverty.

When she went back to Honduras, she was shocked by the change: 
enormous economic growth, and violence.

It's all because of the narco-cartels, Nazario explained:

We've stopped the flow of cocaine through the Caribbean. We spent $8 
billion to do that, but it simply re-routed inland to Honduras ... 
These narco-cartels are really fighting for control over this turf, 
and these children have become their foot soldiers. They are trying 
to recruit these children at a very young age, to use drugs, 
distribute drugs, serve as lookouts, and ultimately serve as hit men 
for these cartels.

We need to see these children for what they are - refugees. It's an 
extraordinary moment for us to stand up and do the right thing for 
these children.

But "doing the right thing" - in Nazario's mind and Stewart's and the 
cheering audience's - stops short of the truth, and where it stops is 
granting those children refugee status.

That is only a part of the right thing to do.

What is completely the right thing to do is to end the War on Drugs 
that made them refugees in the first place. If you don't do this, you 
guarantee more child refugees of this war will come to America.

You see, the War on Drugs - our Prohibition, right here at home - is 
what makes easily renewable commodities like cocaine and heroin worth 
more than their weights in gold. Of course the cartels are armed, and 
of course they're going to fight for control of trafficking routes.

There is simply too much-tax-free-money at stake.

Additionally, unlike corporations that have the right to sue or 
litigate territorial disputes or appeal to federal or international 
agencies or courts, disputes among narco-traffickers are settled with 
violence. There is no other legitimate civil avenue for dispute 
resolution. It is our War on Drugs that ensures that there's no other option.

You see, the War on Drugs puts the power of money and addiction into 
the hands of criminals. We aren't fighting a war over alcohol or 
tobacco for a reason: Those products are regulated. Alcohol 
prohibition of the '20s was a bloody, corrupt failure. The War on 
Drugs is like that - on illegal steroids. It also denies legitimate 
public health officials any input. Power lies squarely with 
criminals, narco-cartels, and the Drug Enforcement Administration 
tasked with making a drug-free society. (Think about that for a 
moment: The Drug Enforcement Administration. Surely the only thing 
they've succeeded at is ensuring illicit drugs are, in fact, used, 
dangerous, and readily available.)

The War on Drugs creates a circumstance where it's easier for kids to 
get illicit drugs than it is to get alcohol or tobacco.

We are not, nor will we ever be, drug-free. Better to end the War and 
regulate cocaine, heroin, meth, and other drugs via a public health, 
taxed approach. It's the only way to take the power from violent 
cartels - and win the War on Drugs.

A continuation of the war will guarantee a continued flow of drugs to 
our young people, and chickens coming home to roost. I mean, children 
seeking refugee status at our border.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom