The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration, and Homeland Security, 2nd Edition

This book addresses the three central issues that continue to dominate the U.S.-Mexico relationship today: drugs, immigration, and security. Nowhere is this more palpable than at the 2,000-mile border shared by the two countries. * Provides a historical perspective that is necessary to understand today's border conflicts * Includes new coverage of weapons trafficking, human trafficking, the diversified activities of organized crime, the role of drug consumption in America, the decay of the border infrastructure, the militarization of the border, and the effects of Arizona's immigration policy changes * Challenges current views about the border as unsafe, unstable, crime-riddled, and a burden on the nation * Portrays the border as a place of hope in need of better management rather than reinforcement of the security regime that has prevailed in the last decades * Includes a chapter on the Pena government and its effect on the binational relationship, the war on the Cartels, and escalation of violence * Draws on the author's current research and interviews with new government actors * Offers penetrating analysis and sound policy recommendations, particularly on how to achieve a truly binational border management system * Features a new final chapter that projects the future of the border over the next 25 years