Posted on 02/21/2012 7:18:22 PM PST by SJackson
There are two places in the world where an international border is undermined by a series of tunnels used by smugglers.
Im at one of them now, the border between southern California and the Tijuana area of Mexico. In the past four years, U.S. authorities have discovered at least 75 tunnels along the length of the 1,950-mile border, many around Tijuana.
After several days along the border, I am struck by the proximity of buildings on the Mexican side to the warehouses on the U.S. side. The nearest buildings are probably the length of two football fields from each other across the border. Drug smugglers don't have to toil too hard to build their tunnels.
If that is too close, well, part of the reason is thriving legitimate cross-border trade. The United States and Mexico are joined at the hip, as it were. Two-way trade amounts to more than $1 billion a day. Six million U.S. jobs depend on trade with Mexico, or one in about every 24 U.S. workers, according to this recent study. Those warehouses on the U.S. side are a hive of activity.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.mcclatchydc.com ...
If youd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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There are differences. Most important, you don't have to smuggle arms in the Mexican tunnels, you can just buy them with the approval of the US government. Stolen cars, don't need a tunnel, drive them over.
"The Israelis were asking no questions. They just cranked up the bulldozers and tore down Palestinian homes. They saw it as a national security imperative.
No one is getting on bulldozers along the U.S.-Mexico border."
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