Our 50-State Border Crisis: How the Mexican Border Fuels the Drug Epidemic Across America by Howard G. Buffett

Our 50-State Border Crisis: How the Mexican Border Fuels the Drug Epidemic Across America Reviews

• 
  Peter Corrigan

  If you ever wondered what you might do if you had essentially unlimited money you could take a page (or a book) from Mr. Howard G. Buffett (a son of the 'Oracle of Omaha'). I guess he could be sitting around on tropical islands or in the south of France surrounded by curvaceous beauties, and perhaps he does in his free time. But it seems unlikely, and in the rest of his time his foundations have been working on some of the most critical and intractable problems in our world today. I know it sounds trite, but every American really should read this book, at the very least every Washington politician. So yes, hell will freeze over first even with global warming. But this book, while not the most amazing piece of 'literature', is indispensable to at least gain a basic understanding of the nature and cause of what is greatest crisis facing our country today (sorry, Greta and climate world is ending gang). One stat should be sufficient to support that claim and it is not a hard one to find. The number of drug-overdose deaths (mainly from Mexican cartel drug smuggling) is roughly 60 or 70,000 per year and still increasing. Exceeding all American combat deaths in Vietnam. Every year. Look what Vietnam did to our 'social fabric'. Climate change has not demonstrably killed anyone yet, weather does that all the time yet in far fewer numbers than in most of human history. The actual, real problem discussed in Mr. Buffett's book is in huge part due to the situation at the Mexican border (and within Mexico and Central America), and essentially dwarfs Vietnam in terms of it's impact on our country. Democrats like to say there is no crisis, one of the most pernicious lies ever told. Trump blames too many of the wrong people, true. But there is enough blame for all the political class. Anyone wanting a more complete analysis of this complex and many-sided issue owes it to themselves to read what Mr. Buffett has to say. That said, nothing will probably change but I tip my hat to this gentleman for at least trying to make a difference.
• 
  Anthony

  This is a sober take on the border crisis that presents a balanced analysis of why securing the Southern border matters to all. While political attention has largely directed us to associating the border with drug and human trafficking, which covers a solid page count here, Buffett also reports on the humanitarian challenge arising from drug gang violence in the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, which is a key catalyst for the immigration attempts. Buffett underscores how cartel violence in Mexico, and MS-13 and 18th Street gangs, terrorize locals, have paid off law enforcement, and are responsible for untold murders, but whose funding largely comes from American recreational drug users. Buffett is sympathetic to the people whose lives have been upturned by gangs' recent expansion into rural Central America, extracting renta with homicidal threats from anyone with disposable money, and part of his philanthropy work is to foster programs that would generate livelihoods opportunities. In the absence of rule of law, this ends up occasionally creating unnecessary misery; he refers to a household that was participating in a rural development program his organization was supporting, that was forced to flee their home once the drug gangs circled them and threatened them with murder if they didn't hand everything over to them.
  
  The book is short on "facts" and "trends," because Buffett chose a breezy, personal writing style centered on his experience at his ranches, his Illinois law enforcement experience, funding development projects in Africa and Latin America, and the numerous border-affected people and Border Patrol he's befriended over the decades. Anecdote is powerful, as is Buffett's weaving of Oscar, a dehydrated Honduran border crosser found on one of his properties whose family and backstory Buffett investigates with eventual trips to Honduras and regular contact through Facebook and WhatsApp.
  
  The book closes with 5 imminently sensible recommendations to improve border security. Our 50-State Border Crisis cuts past ideology, and presents arguments that would have both Democrat and Republican heads nodding. As a result, those of us used to partisan echo chambers are likely to learn something here. For liberals, an unsecured border allows narco- and human traffickers into the country, and incurs substantial costs in law enforcement, prosecution, detention, and deportation. For conservatives, many people crossing the border and seeking asylum are simply trying to survive and are fleeing imminent death. For a country that's supposed to be a refuge, there should be more support for that.
  
  Highly recommended.
• 
  Kimberly

  NOTES:
  
  When the rule of law is absent it is almost impossible to achieve real progress.
  
  “A wall” will not solve this problem.
  
  In 2011, the last year for which there are solid statistics, the direct impact of all illegal drug use on the U.S. healthcare system was estimated at $11 billion, and it is much higher now.
  
  I bring a law enforcement point of view, but I also come to this topic as a philanthropist whose foundation has spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting development and humanitarian projects in countries that are overwhelmed by conflict and injustice, including Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
  
  Border security and immigration are connected to U.S. food security. It is concerning that U.S. agriculture relies on tens of thousands of undocumented workers to harvest our food.
  
  Almost inevitably, where there is poverty and hunger, there is violence.
  
  From 2000 to 2012, Warner estimates they had about sixty people per day, but sometimes as many as two hundred people per day, hiking across their land, stopping to rest and eat, and then continuing on for miles to interstate highways to get picked up.
  
  Law enforcement must maintain good communication and relationships of trust with undocumented community members in support of public safety. Local law enforcement’s top priority must be apprehending dangerous, violent individuals. Confusion in an immigrant community about whether local police also are operating as federal immigration enforcement can have serious and negative consequences.
  
  The people profiting from America’s addictions and drug use are not just going to give up if drugs that currently bring them huge sums of money are legalized; they will adapt, and they will continue to prey on anyone they feel they can exploit.
  
  I confess: I didn’t want to write this chapter about whether we should build “a” or “the” wall to improve border security. It was frustrating to me to listen to Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric in 2016 about some “big beautiful” wall that Mexico would pay for. At first, I thought that talk was mostly symbolic and just meant to signal that he was focusing on improving border security, which I support. But focusing on the wall became a way for Trump to insult Mexico, which is the opposite of what the United States needs to do if we are ever going to achieve border security. Talk about making Mexico pay for it was unproductive and ridiculous, and it set back years of progress between our countries. We will never secure the border without the support and cooperation of the Mexican government. Period.
  
  Most Americans have no idea what true poverty is like in the developing world, or what it is like to be surrounded by violence and be unable to turn to local police.
  
  Our foundation has spent nearly two decades investing in efforts to help small farmers improve their crop yields and increase the level of their families’ health and income. I’ve also visited over twenty refugee camps from Darfur to Yemen to Latvia. To leave everything you own, everything you love, everything you know in order to seek asylum is a radical, risky decision. I don’t believe people do it for any other reason than survival.
  
  The essence of the rule of law is that it must be applied consistently and that no one, and no organization or agency, is above it. Without acceptance of that fundamental principle in a society, justice is unreliable, and you cannot bring violence under control.
  
  Many see the Mexican military as the only entity with the resources and standards to go after and respond to cartels.
  
  As a law enforcement advocate, I believe that massive decriminalization of all drugs would take too big a toll on innocent people over too long a period, and I also believe it would trigger many negative unintended consequences.
  
  Mexico’s legal system is so weak, the prosecution rate is 5 percent. How do you fix problems when you have a 95 percent chance of escaping prosecution or punishment when you commit a crime?
  
  One thing I know for sure: Insulting, bullying, or belittling Mexico will never help us improve border security. To help Mexico change for the better, we need to change as well. We need to treat the Mexican government as a partner and help it stabilize the country, drive out the criminal element, and achieve better security for us both.
  
  There is a U.S. law important to the border challenge that dates back to 1878. It’s called the Posse Comitatus Act, and it prohibits U.S. military services from enforcing domestic laws. It’s a vital concept in a democracy: Misuse of military forces on domestic soil is a common tactic of despots and dictators. The military should defend the country from foreign threats and never treat U.S. citizens, even when they have broken the law, as an enemy to be put down first and asked questions later.
  
  Tijuana, Mexico - according to the San Diego Union Tribune - Millions of commercial vehicles carrying billions of dollars in legal goods drive back and forth across the border every year, and if CBP were to search every vehicle thoroughly, the delays would cripple many businesses on both sides of the border.
  
  Three fallacies to tackle head-on:
  1. The idea that the majority of people crossing our borders today are Mexican criminals is wrong.
  2. We cannot ignore the historical role Mexican laborers, both undocumented and documented, play in our agricultural economy. They are not “stealing our jobs.”
  3. Threatening tariffs or other ill-considered ploys to force Mexico to “pay” for a wall is likely to backfire.
  
  About 60 percent of unauthorized residents in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute, have been here for at least a decade.
  
  In 2014, the number of non-Mexicans apprehended at U.S. borders began exceeding the number of Mexicans.
  
  Our foundation has supported extensive research in this area, and I say with no hesitation that these are not jobs native-born U.S. workers have wanted to perform for decades.
  
  An estimated 70 percent of crop workers in the United States were born in Mexico.
  
  Some Americans still tend to see Mexico in a very superficial way: as a potential vacation destination, as the country of origin for many of our farm laborers and “illegals,” or in recent years as a country suffering extreme violence (and therefore to be avoided as a vacation destination!). This limited appreciation for the complexities of Mexico is making the larger goal of border security much more difficult.
  
  The value of a dog trained to sniff drugs and chase and hold a suspect is enormous. The speed and determination of a canine to pursue a person on foot is an unrivaled asset that reduces the threat of harm to a law enforcement officer.
  
  “There is nothing in the entire technological arsenal of planet Earth with a sensory capability superior to Fido’s nose.”
  
  Persistent presence is not a technology; it is strategy that ensures no part of the border goes unprotected. Without persistent presence, you cannot achieve operational control.
  
  We cannot pretend to care deeply about safety and the rule of law if U.S. businesses and individuals don’t accept the degree to which they have created an incentive for illegal immigration by hiring undocumented workers.
  
  These days, many farmers are struggling to find enough labor to harvest crops, and that is a reminder of how vital foreign-born labor has been to our food supply.
  
  We will never achieve sustained border security unless the United States supports the peace and security of other countries in our hemisphere. We must help reduce the gang violence and provide positive alternatives to gang involvement for young people in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in particular.
  
  I travel to El Salvador and Colombia and Mexico to try to help vulnerable people, but also to better understand the threats our country is facing. We cannot wall ourselves off from the rest of the Western Hemisphere.
  
  “You can give all manner of goods and services to the poor, but if you don’t restrain the hands of the violent bullies taking it all away, you’re going to be very disappointed in the long-term impact of your efforts.”
  
  Obama administration tripled past budgets designed to help strengthen governance, root out corruption, and encourage foreign investments. We need more, not less of that kind of investment. We need our government to be smarter about how it approaches some of these challenges.
• 
  Libby Ramsey

  I had expectations that it was going to be a bit anti-immigration, even though the people who recommended it to me said it changed their perspective on immigration and were more in favor of it. I was curious by what this book contained. The author focuses on the need to protect our border, from cartels and illicit activities (drug smuggling, human trafficking), but makes it a point throughout the book that the majority of undocumented immigrants are not criminals and r*pists, and that rhetoric is damaging. He focuses on restoring the rule of law in home countries so people feel safe and have hope within thier own countries. Addressing the issue at the root. He echoed a lot of pro-immigration sentiments (like the essentialness of migrant workers in the US and by sharing individual immigrants stories), but was not afraid to acknowledge, yes drug cartels are an issue, and acknowledge issues within CBP. I would recommend the book. The only thing that drove me crazy was that in his attempts to build credibility, he comes across very haughty. How many times do you have to say you examined the border by "helicopter,"??!! We get it.
• 
  Andrew Pixton

  Comprehensive, fair, and frank. He evades most partisanship in an effort at real solutions. I do think he under-evaluated the demand side, especially on the issue of Substance Use Disorders. It's not just that big pharma hooked people on opiates, drugs in general are coping mechanisms for other unresolved illnesses and trauma. The nature of addiction also taps into brain connectivity and can rewire it to lessen impulse control and future planning, thus trimming your ability to quit in the first place. The social bonding of gangs also feeds their membership. He hinted at these things but they deserved more space.
• 
  Tadd Kirksey

  Interesting look and loaded with information. If you listen with a one sided stance you probably won’t finish it. Listening to it knowing that it is an opinion and being open to hearing it, I believe most will enjoy and and get something out of it.
• 
  Jon

  This is a tough book to review. I believe that Buffett is sincere and serious in his proposals, which sets him apart from the wall-building crowd. Furthermore, his book does outline, or at least mention, many of the most substantial policy considerations at play in this debate. His sections on sanctuary cities and the different legal categories of undocumented immigrants are clearly presented and DEFINITELY deserve to be read.
  
  Where I differ from Buffett is at times only a question of emphases. Unfortunately, in this particular area of debate, different emphases REALLY matter. For example, Buffett mentions (though only in passing) the pharmaceutical industry’s role in creating the current opioid crisis, but he gives little attention to the role lawmakers must play in better regulating this industry and holding it accountable. His response to combating the drug cartels at the level of US demand for drugs is to say, in essence, “That’s really complicated, and we don’t have time for complicated because this is a CRISIS!” But then he goes on to propose massive, legislatively cumbersome changes to federal programs and oversight in order to “secure the border.” He devotes a lot of time to narratives about prison conditions and gangs in El Salvador, but he never once mentions the US private prison complexes where thousands of immigrants are held with minimal government oversight or the well-documented links between American prisons and immigrant gang recruitment.
  
  By placing the emphasis on the border (rather than on drug supply or demand), Buffett is only able to present muddled and incomplete solutions to the problems he identifies. He defines “securing the border” in terms of keeping out those who would do us harm, but then he largely ends up presenting all undocumented immigrants (criminal and non-criminal) as equally violators of “law and order.” He is (appropriately) critical of the Clinton-era laws that helped militarize the border to secure cities and had the unintended side-effects of strengthening cartels, professionalizing the border-crossing industry, and killing lots of innocent people; but then his solution is to further militarize the border in order to achieve the unreachable ideal of a “secure border.”
  
  Ultimately, when so many billions of dollars are on the line, drug cartels WILL find a way to get their product into the US. They have resources, time, and lots of options available. However well intentioned, any set of solutions that doesn’t prioritize reducing demand and lowering the value of the products the cartels are selling cannot be taken all that seriously.
• 
  Ray

  As interesting as this book may be, knowing who wrote it was equally interesting to me. Howard Buffett, son of investor guru Warren Buffett (one of the richest men in the world), is head of a billion dollar foundation working to end hunger, a farmer, and may well be the richest policeman in the Country. He recently served as sheriff in Macon County, Illinois, having trained in police work and worked as under-sheriff as well. His experience on his foundation's ranch along the Southern Border, as well as his interest in law enforcement gives him unique experience and insights into problems on the U.S. / Mexican border.
  
  Buffett details how the drug problem in the United States leads to border smuggling and trafficking.
  But he also looks at other problems including the U.S. farm needs for migrant workers, and looking at refugees fleeing violence in their home countries in Central America. He emphasizes the importance of border security, but notes that simply building a bigger border wall by itself is not the solution. He talks about how drug smuggling is carried out by use of tunnels, vehicles, boats, drones, catapult launchers, etc. He provides an informed discussion of all the problems along the border, including the needs of farmers and land owners along the southern border, the needs of the Border Patrol, agricultural needs for laborers, legitimate humanitarian needs of refugees, and the near impossibility of preventing drugs from crossing the border as long as there's a huge demand for drugs in the United States.
  ​
• 
  Andrew Figueiredo

  I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The title screams "border hawk" and I expected something almost Trumpy, but I decided to read because Heidi Heitkamp wrote the forward. It turns out that "Our 50-State Border Crisis" combats pervasive narratives on both the right and left and is well worth a read. Right away, I want to note that Buffett decries the logic behind building a huge wall and he also deplores the fact that the border is porous to drug traffickers in many areas.
  
  He supports his claims with personal experiences as a rancher in Arizona, interviews with stakeholders from all angles (including migrants), and data. It's fascinating how things like "sanctuary cities" become so oversimplified in the media as to mislead. For example, most of the time, even when law enforcement retains somebody, ICE doesn't have the manpower to pick them up. Buffett calls out all responsible parties for the border crisis, making this a worthwhile read. He describes in-depth how horrific conditions are in the Northern Triangle countries with gang warfare, prison overcrowding, etc and hits on the decaying rule of law in Mexico. Additionally, he factors in the demand aspect of drug smuggling and undocumented labor.
  
  Buffett emphasizes multiple times the humanity of immigrants while advocating for solutions that would prevent trafficking, as well as restructuring DHS. I found his personal experiences with migrants particularly heartbreaking and poignant. That said, I think he could have used more discussion of immigration reform as a whole, even though he claims to separate those discussions from border security. I disagree. Both are important and interconnected and should thus be addressed together for humanitarianism and security.
• 
  Kim

  I listened to the audio book narrated by Matt Kugler.
  
  This is a good overview of issues involving security on the Mexican border. The author is definitely right leaning, but he also appears to deeply care about the plight of many of who cross into the USA illegally to escape violence in their own countries. The book is by no means a definitive guide on the topic, but the author brings up many valid points. I don't agree with the author on everything, but I respect his position.
  
  As I write this review, the American government is in a partial shutdown over funding for Trump's border wall. The issue has become politicized to the point of ridiculousness. If only we could have productive and informed public discussions about the topic. If the problem of border security is ever to be adequately addressed, we, as a country, have to move beyond simplistic solutions like "the wall" and implement policies and procedures that will really work.
• 
  Gary

  Interesting read describing the seriousness of the illegal immigration problem, but not very helpful with solutions. Spoiler alert.....the author's solutions are to send more aid to the countries the drugs and people are coming from, and to work more closely with the people living near the border to customize the border wall. Almost no mention is made of the real solutions, cracking down on the people and companies that hire people who are here illegally, and reducing illegal drug usage, though I'm not sure how to do the latter other than legalizing addictive drugs and hoping that works out.
• 
  Mia Noorda

  3.5 stars I feel like this is a pretty basic book about the border crisis. Buffett is definitely qualified to talked about the issues and makes some great points about what can be done, but I felt like the book lacked some depth. The border is full of rich stories about so many different people. I wish he made the information more personable by including some of those stories. If you don't know anything about the border crisis and want to learn the basics, I think this book is great. If you're looking for more I would suggest something else.
• 
  Elizabeth

  Shocking and scary how the illegal immigrants crossing the border (out of fear of cartels and gangs) and the opioid drug crisis in the US are related —and are at a terrifying catastrophic level and will only get worse without some big changes—something that is being lost in media coverage with all else we have going on right now. I appreciated Mr Buffett’s perspective being an entrepreneur, philanthropist and Sherrif.
• 
  Frank E

  Pretty basic straight forward book about the troubles on the southern border. The personal story about Oscar was the most interesting part of the book but it was in fact very short. His solutions appear to be obvious on the surface but really wish more emphasis was focused on the recreational drug users and how they are part of the problem but are also concerned about animal free makeup. Walls won’t fix the problem. I thought it was a very informative book but also very basic.
• 
  Johnny

  The author excellently details the many effects of having an open border as well as the tragic circumstances that motivate thousands to risk their lives to cross the border. The author also explains how complicated the immigration issue is and how simply building a wall won’t solve every problem. The plight of drugs is fueled by border trafficking and the economy is affected by an over-saturation of low-wage workers who cannot communicate in English.
• 
  Kent Woodger

  Occasionally I read non-fiction and this seemed timely. His solution: in addition to wall/fence, congress oversight of the Border Patrol, cooperation with Mexico, have a persistent presence on the border, reduce the demand for drugs, support peace and security in our hemisphere, etc.