Good bye to drug cartels!

Always in His Presence said:

Joe Biden to pause border wall construction, issue protections for DACA recipients and roll back other Trump immigration policies​

On the same afternoon he’s sworn in as the nation’s 46th president, Joe Biden will take executive actions that will undo several of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, his transition team announced Wednesday.​

Biden’s biggest immigration proposal to date would allow more new immigrants into the U.S. while giving millions of unauthorized immigrants who are already in the country a pathway to legal status​

​

Biden Signs Executive Orders Reversing Trump Immigration Policies​

U.S. President Joe Biden signed executive orders Tuesday to start to dismantle former President Donald Trump’s restrictive immigration policies, including an attempt to reunite families that had been separated at the U.S.-Mexican border.​

​

​

Click to expand...

The border wall was not stopping people from turning themselves in for asylum. One more time, asylum is the law of the land. Moreover, Trump's overturning of DACA was shot down by the SCOTUS. So DACA was the law of the land. Do you see a trend here?

Always in His Presence said:

US declares drug cartels, criminal gangs global terrorist organizations​

The United States has designated eight Latin American criminal and drug-trafficking groups as “global terrorist organizations” amid escalating rhetoric from President Donald Trump.​

​

In a Federal Register notice filed on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, without offering details, that the groups have committed or pose a risk of committing “acts of terrorism that threaten the security of United States nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States”.​

​

Mexico announces major meth seizure in cartel heartland amid pressure from Trump to curb drug trafficking​

Mexico announced Monday the seizure of 440 pounds of methamphetamine in a cartel heartland, as it comes under mounting pressure from President Trump to tackle drug trafficking.​

​

The discovery was made during a weekend operation to dismantle illegal drug laboratories in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, a government statement said.​

​

The value of the drugs seized was nearly $40 million, it said, adding that more than 3,170 gallons of chemical precursors used to make methamphetamine were also confiscated.​

​

The Latin American nation has announced a series of major drug discoveries in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to highlight increased efforts to combat drug smuggling.​

​

US adds Mexican cartels to list of foreign terrorist organizations​

The US has added six Mexican cartels to its list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), as it calls for the “total elimination” of the criminal groups trafficking drugs to the US.​

​

Mexico’s two biggest organized crime groups, the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels, were among those added, as were Tren de Aragua and Mara Salvatrucha, groups with ties to Venezuela and El Salvador.​

'Severe blow' to Sinaloa cartel as security chief of El Chapo's son arrested​

The Mexican army says it has arrested a key player in the Sinaloa drug cartel in the northern city of Culiacán.​

​

José Ángel Canobbio, also known as "El Güerito" (little blond one), is accused of being the right hand man of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, one of the sons of infamous jailed drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.​

​

Mexican security forces say the arrest of Canobbio, who they say was in charge of security for Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, is a severe blow to the Sinaloa cartel.​

​

He was captured just hours after the United States added the Sinaloa cartel to its list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), a move which the Trump Administration says will allow it to better combat the criminal groups.​

Click to expand...

These are all positive developments. I believe President Trump has addressed the drug problem in America with seriousness and aims to allocate substantial resources towards it, even if it means challenging established norms and urging the international community to reduce drug trafficking. All these efforts are commendable.

However, claiming “Goodbye to drug cartel, your free ride is over” is just political rhetorical . Every president in the last 50 years has tried to reduce drug use in America. Some, like President Reagan, made it a major agenda, while others relied on regular law enforcement without much political emphasis. No president gave “ free ride” to drug cartel.

Pommer said:

If you could let “the other side” present their own arguments, that’d be swell.

Click to expand...

He'll decide.

[Mexico] wants its neighbor to crack down on firearms trafficking in the other direction.

“If they declare these criminal groups as terrorists, then we’ll have to expand our US lawsuit,” Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said at a daily press conference.

A new charge could include alleged complicity of gunmakers with terror groups, she said.

“We categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Mexican government about alliances with criminal organizations,” the president wrote on social platform X [earlier this month]

“If there is such an alliance anywhere, it is in the US gun shops that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups,” she added.

[And now they're arming US-declared terrorist organizations.]

Always in His Presence said:

Which is it?

Click to expand...

President Trump’s efforts to combat drug trafficking are positive. However, as I noted before, as long as there is demand for illegal substances at high prices, drug trafficking will persist. President Reagan initiated the "War on Drugs" campaign, and after fifty years, we are still fighting it. This has been a challenge throughout history. From ancient Egypt to today, civilized society has been combating the use of illegal substances for the past five thousand years.

Calling it "goodbye to drug cartels" is political rhetoric. No matter how much an administration fights drug trafficking, drug usage won't stop, and cartels won't disappear. If drugs don't come from South America, they'll come from elsewhere.

FAITH-IN-HIM said:

Another empty gesture made by a politician and supported by their followers. Nothing More.

The guy who WON the Cold War for America declared the "War on Drugs." Fifty years later, we're still combating it.

As long as there are individuals willing to purchase illegal substances at high prices, drug cartels will continue to exist. This phenomenon has been occurring since Egyptians controlled the world, and it is likely to persist long after J.D. Vance no longer in power.

Click to expand...

I recall the debate about using US military in Columbia to stop the cartels there. And, eventually we did (mostly) shut down those cartels, only to have the replaced by the ones in Central America. While it would be good to return Mexico to the people, to no longer have them live in fear of the cartels, it won't stop the drugs -- the only way to stop the drugs is to eliminate the demand for the drugs in the US. Until then, if you stop one cartel it will just cause another, possibly in another country, to grow to replace it. As long as there is demand, people will risk their lives to get the large profits to supply the drugs there is demand for.

SimplyMe said:

I recall the debate about using US military in Columbia to stop the cartels there. And, eventually we did (mostly) shut down those cartels, only to have the replaced by the ones in Central America. While it would be good to return Mexico to the people, to no longer have them live in fear of the cartels, it won't stop the drugs -- the only way to stop the drugs is to eliminate the demand for the drugs in the US. Until then, if you stop one cartel it will just cause another, possibly in another country, to grow to replace it. As long as there is demand, people will risk their lives to get the large profits to supply the drugs there is demand for.

Click to expand...

The United States cannot resolve the drug problem in Mexico or South America. Regardless of how many US military personnel are deployed to South America, achieving that goal remains unattainable, and US casualties would be significant without any substantial success.

FAITH-IN-HIM said:

President Reagan initiated the "War on Drugs" campaign, and after fifty years, we are still fighting it. This has been a challenge throughout history.

Click to expand...

Nixon began the ”war on drugs”; Reagan largely eschewed it with the Nancy (Reagan) inspired “Just say no” campaign.

One thing that hasn’t been tried (two, if you’re of a more libertarian mind), making Americans’ lives so good that the escape into chemical nirvana isn’t the draw it seems to be, (or just let “freedom reign” and only lightly regulate an all drugs/substances are legal framework to try to insure the purity (and yea, accurate dosage) of substances).

ozso said:

"They're going to go about it the completely wrong way and just make matters worse".

Click to expand...

I'm picking option C.

THE WAR ON DRUGS HAS FAILED

ECONOMIC INCENTIVE
I can’t believe that the so-called ‘economic rationalist right’ in the USA has forgotten the basics of supply and demand! By calling drug use a crime and threatening to incarcerate users and suppliers, the drugs become scarce - which some would say is the whole point! But stop and THINK for a moment.
When you limit supply, you drive up the price. The price has been so high for decades it creates an IRRESISTABLE incentive for drug cartels to grow. They now rival huge corporations like Walmart. They have their own engineering corps building submarines and tunnels across the border!

COST TO AMERICA
The USA has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s inmates. Are Americans really 5 times more criminal than the rest of the world? No - they are suffering bad drugs policies that much of the world are steering away from. (If Elon’s “DOGE” wants to cut costs - they should investigate the war on drugs as creating 5 times as many jails! Imagine the sheer COST of running all this!?) Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries - Wikipedia

IF WE CANNOT BAN IT - THEN WHAT?
Convert the ‘War on Drugs’ into a mental health model. Decriminalise drug use. This is not about encouraging commercial sale of heroin over the counter - but rather a medical model where health clinics provide safe injecting rooms. There they supply cleaner, safer drugs with standardised concentrations. (This would reduce how many troubled youth are killed by overdose.)

EFFECTS
Drug users then have a safe environment and feel cared for by the government - rather than terrified of police. They can just go to the clinic rather than break into people’s homes or carry guns to the corner store to hold up some terrified grocer for the user’s next hit. It reduces crime. Instead, social workers offer counselling and encouragement and monitor other health conditions the users might have. Are they carrying an infectious disease? Do they want counselling? How are they? Do they need welfare accommodation? Data from overseas shows that it massively reduces the burden on the police force, jails, and broader society. Many drug users work with the counsellor on their underlying issues - end up clean and back in the workforce.
Or you could just continue the punitive war on drugs - which drives up the profit motive for cartels, and increases the cost of a weaponised militarised police force, racist policing of certain ethnic neighbourhoods, burden on the court system, and a jail system 5 times the size of the average OECD nation!

But hey - why listen to overseas data? Trumpist’s are too busy “Making America Great Again!” They want a strong man at the helm - with simplistic answers to complex questions. LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE!