Melissa del Bosque | The Texas Observer

Some U.S. Senators (Lieberman) and Texas’ own Governor Goodhair say that President Obama is not doing enough to fight drug cartels with the border security plan he announced yesterday. It should be noted, however, that his plan at least acknowledges that Mexico’s drug problem is our drug problem too. And it emphasizes (gasp) communication with our neighbor to the south which is something our leadership has not engaged in, oh, eight years. Obama’s plan quadruples the number of U.S. liaisons working with Mexico in a binational effort to fight the drug cartels. This is a much needed and — dare I say it — logical step in coordination and communication between the two countries.

The word logical never entered the Bush Administration lexicon which focused on building border walls that cost $12 million a mile.

Obama does two things in his plan that Mexico has been asking for for years: a focus on the reduction in drug use in the United States and a crackdown on guns flowing south into Mexico. It’s not easy living next door to the world’s largest arms dealer. Mexico has often requested help from the U.S. Congress in reducing the number of guns funneled into Mexico. Obama’s plan relocates 100 ATF officers to the border in the next 45 days to fortify ATF’s Project Gunrunner aimed at disrupting arms trafficking between the United States and Mexico.

Finally, it is good to see that the plan focuses on the treatment and prevention of drug addiction. Several decades of fighting the war on drugs has done little to stem drug use in the United States. It’s time to focus on prevention and treatment rather than building more prison complexes — sorry Geo Group.

And while the border wall boondoggle is not mentioned in Obama’s security plan, there is $100 million set aside for fences and virtual technology along the border in the economic stimulus bill. In a story yesterday by the Rio Grande Guardian, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was quoted as saying that her agency would finish the existing tracts of fencing — bad news for many Brownsville residents. With regards to new areas of fencing she said it would be in combination with technology and manpower. Napolitano seems to be de-emphasizing the use of border fences — another logical step . I’m getting nervous. I’ve used the word logical three times when talking about the federal government.