As i was thinking and talking about the situation i wrote about in my last post, The Complexity of the Border Patrol Agents' Sentence, i realized i hadn't articulated one important point.
That is that if the u.s. government has involvement in the mexican/u.s. drug trade, then that has an impact on how border-crossers should be viewed. As it is, i already pointed to some examples of the u.s. involvement in drugs, but these examples are largely historically ignored. The cocaine-related examples should be enough for the american people to stand up against the government and say "enough"- because of the hypocrisy, corruption, deaths, etc.
What i'm also concerned with is that border-crossers/"illegals"/"aliens" are given a number of stereotypes. One being the drug smuggler. Of course some are. But is it fair bring or call for repression against a whole group because some people are drug smugglers? Some white women are shoplifters and certainly i'm not treated like a shoplifter and there's certainly no campaign against me.
So not only do the anti-immigrant folks use the drug smuggler stereotype to attack all undocumented immigrants from mexico, they also may be barking up the wrong tree. Just as the corrupt mexican government probably allows the drug trade to continue- gaining power as it does so, but the u.s. government also seems to be complicit in it. And i would be willing to bet that even if it came out that the u.s. goverment was involved in the mexico/u.s. drug trade, evidence and all, that the anti-immigrant movement would still scapegoat the undocumented immigrants.
In the past, i've brought up a few examples of border patrol individuals and other officials being involved in the drug trade.
Oh, Minutemen, how about those drug smugglers in uniforms? from the AZ Daily Star and My opinion Maria Elena Salinas : Corrupt officials at home hinder real immigration reform.
And those are just the ones who have gotten caught. Of course, these are individuals and not necessarily part of a bigger picture- then again, maybe they're just made out not to be part of the bigger corrupt government. It's relevant either way.
To me, the issue is not whether the border patrol agents get pardoned or not. Because if it doesn't happen, maybe that means the next border patrol agent is going to hesitate before he pulls out his gun. If it does happen, then it'll just be another example of how law enforcement can get away with shooting people whether or not they know who that person is or whether or not they committed a crime. The issue to me is what this situation means for how critical people are of the u.s. government and its relationship to the drug trade.
