Our 50-state border crisis : how the Mexican border fuels the drug epidemic across America

First Title Value for Searching:

Personal Author:

Buffett, Howard G.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

xxviii, 356 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of color plates : color illustrations, map ; 24 cm.

Summary:

From one of America's most prominent philanthropists, an eye-opening, myth-busting new perspective on the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. Howard G. Buffett has seen first-hand the devastating impact of cheap Mexican heroin and other opiate cocktails across America. Fueled by failing border policies and lawlessness in Mexico and Central America, drugs are pouring over the nation's southern border in record quantities, turning Americans into addicts and migrants into drug mules--and killing us in record numbers. Politicians talk about a border crisis and an opioid crisis as separate issues. To Buffett, a landowner on the U.S. border with Mexico and now a sheriff in Illinois, these are intimately connected. Ineffective border policies not only put residents in border states like Texas and Arizona in harm's way, they put American lives in states like Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Vermont at risk. Mexican cartels have grown astonishingly powerful by exploiting both the gaps in our border security strategy and the desperation of migrants--all while profiting enormously off America's growing addiction to drugs. The solution isn't a wall. In this groundbreaking book, Buffett outlines a realistic, effective, and bi-partisan approach to fighting cartels, strengthening our national security, and tackling the roots of the chaos below the border.--Amazon.com.

Contents:

Foreword by Senator Heidi Haitkamp -- Part I: Costs and consequences. Red Shoes "walk up" ; Lights off, pistols ready ; Stepping on the balloon ; An expensive juggling act ; Sanctuaries and "slam dunks" ; Drug cartels and Decaturs ; What about demand? ; Too much, too fast ; Barriers -- Part II: Countries of origin. Red Shoes in Honduras ; Stolen harvests ; Two-legged predators ; Prison or the cemetery ; Silencing the canary ; Red Shoes on the road again -- Part III: What needs to change. Reboot command of the border ; Respect and work with Mexico ; Create a persistent presence ; Reduce demand for drugs and illegal labor ; Support peace and security in our hemisphere -- Epilogue: Orange Shoes in Arizona.

Subject Term:

Drug control -- Mexican-American Border Region.

Drug traffic -- Mexico.

Human smuggling -- Mexican-American Border Region.

Border security -- United States.

Publication Info:

New York : Hachette Books, [2018]

Subject:

Drug control -- Mexican-American Border Region.

Drug traffic -- Mexico.

Human smuggling -- Mexican-American Border Region.

Border security -- United States.

Mexico -- Emigration and immigration -- Government policy.

United States -- Emigration and immigration -- Government policy

Drug control -- Government policy

Drug enforcement

Drug law enforcement

Drug policy

Drug traffic -- Government policy

Drug traffic control

Drugs -- Government policy

Narcotics, Control of

War on drugs

Drug dealing

Drug production, Illicit

Drug smuggling

Drug trade, Illicit

Drug trafficking

Drugs -- Prices and sale

Illicit drug production

Illicit drug trade

Narcotic trade

Narcotic traffic

Narcotic trafficking

Smuggling of drugs

Smuggling of narcotics

Traffic, Drug

Trafficking in drugs

Trafficking in narcotics

Immigrant smuggling

Migrant smuggling

People smuggling

Border control

Border management

Boundaries -- Security measures

Cross-border security

SAILS ISBN:

9780316476614

Available:

Library	Shelf Number	Shelf Location	Status
Searching... East Bridgewater Public Library	363.284 BUF 2018	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Elizabeth Taber Library	363.284 BUF	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Lakeville Public Library	363.284 BUF	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Mansfield Public Library	363.28 B	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Middleborough Public Library	363.284 BUF	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Norfolk Public Library	363.284 BUFF	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Rehoboth - Blanding Free PL	363.23 BUF	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Westport Free Public Library	363.284 BUF 2018	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

From one of America's most prominent philanthropists, an eye-opening, myth-busting new perspective on the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Howard G. Buffett has seen first-hand the devastating impact of cheap Mexican heroin and other opiate cocktails across America. Fueled by failing border policies and lawlessness in Mexico and Central America, drugs are pouring over the nation's southern border in record quantities, turning Americans into addicts and migrants into drug mules -- and killing us in record numbers.

Politicians talk about a border crisis and an opioid crisis as separate issues. To Buffett, a landowner on the U.S. border with Mexico and now a sheriff in Illinois, these are intimately connected. Ineffective border policies not only put residents in border states like Texas and Arizona in harm's way, they put American lives in states like Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Vermont at risk.

Mexican cartels have grown astonishingly powerful by exploiting both the gaps in our border security strategy and the desperation of migrants -- all while profiting enormously off America's growing addiction to drugs. The solution isn't a wall. In this groundbreaking book, Buffett outlines a realistic, effective, and bi-partisan approach to fighting cartels, strengthening our national security, and tackling the roots of the chaos below the border.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

A sort-of-liberal, sort-of-conservative argument for a secure southern border, served up by investor and philanthropist Buffett (40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World, 2013, etc.).It is telling that this examination of border policy and the drug trade comes with two forewords, one by Cindy McCain, a conservative Arizonan, and the other by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a comparatively liberal North Dakotan. By Buffett's--son of Warren--account, the drug epidemic served by cartels from south of the border is a nonpartisan issue. In any event, his argument is not doctrinaire, and it refreshingly lacks the knee-jerk xenophobia that the current administration has been serving up with its talk of a border wall. In a mostly levelheaded narrative, the author calls for a carefully, professionally, and nationally policed border. As he writes, "patrolling our borders effectively today…demands a combination of law enforcement, intelligence gathering, and foreign adversary engagement skills and tactics beyond basic law enforcement." Interestingly, Buffett also recognizes the economic and political forces that are driving the drug trade in Mexico, for which he suggests a multipronged aid approach that includes American help in breaking up the Central American gangs that seem to be the chief source of supply for young, violence-prone foot soldiers. In all this, he urges probity and diplomacy. "Insulting, bullying, or belittling Mexico will never help us improve border security," he writes, pointedly. "To help Mexico change for the better, we need to change as well." The author doesn't quite hit hard enough on a couple of matters--namely, that there wouldn't be a cartel-driven drug market without domestic demand and that big pharma is a cartel all its own, with imported heroin serving as a substitute for most addicts when prescribed opioids aren't available. Still, his case holds up pretty well, with only occasional bursts of undue alarmism.A useful, reasonable work of civilian policy analysis sure to invite discussion and even controversy.