When we think of the United States’s borders, we are likely to think of the northern border, between the states and Canada, and the southern border, shared with Mexico. Both provide miscreants with opportunities for drug trafficking, smuggling, human trafficking, and illegal entry.
Drug trafficking
Mexico is the top port of entry for fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin. More than 70% of cocaine, 82% of heroin, and over 90% of fentanyl and methamphetamine arrive in the U.S. from Mexico, mostly through legal ports or entry, and usually carried by U.S. citizens.
Canada sees more smuggling of marijuana than of other drugs, but overall it is the source of only a tiny fraction of the drugs arriving in the United States. It is quite possible that more drugs enter Canada from the U.S. than the other way around. However, the northern border is very porous: there is about 5,000 miles of border to cross and much of it is very sparsely populated. It is considered an easier way for terrorists to enter the United States, compared with the southern border.
The third border, Puerto Rico, is a transshipment point for cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and fentanyl. The DEA says that these shipments typically arrive from the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico. Drugs are easily transported from Puerto Rico to the states by mail or in luggage on airplanes.
What’s more, the drug trade is responsible for most of the violent crime taking place in Puerto Rico. This makes defense of the Caribbean border a high priority for the wellbeing of U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico.
Human trafficking
While it is impossible to track numbers precisely, government sources report that the southern border is involved in human trafficking to the United States. While there is human trafficking taking place in every state of the union, Canada’s figures on human trafficking suggest that the problem there is mostly internal, and U.S. government data supports this. The northern border is not a primary source of human trafficking into the United States.
In. the Caribbean, human trafficking is estimated to affect .64 people for every 1,000 individuals. The United Nations reports that 52% of the victims of human trafficking in the Caribbean are young girls, and another 30% are women. Since these figures are for the Caribbean in general, they are not specifically relevant to Puerto Rico.
However, U.S. government sources identify Puerto Rico as an easy transit point from Latin America to the mainland United States.
Illegal entry
The primary means of illegal entry for would-be migrants is overland at the southern border. The second most common means is people overstaying their temporary visa, such as tourist or student visas. Only about 6% of illegal entries into the U.S. take place at the northern border.
Government sources estimate that about 1% of illegal entries take place by ship, and that includes all maritime attempts, not just those traveling from Puerto Rico. It is also possible for would-be immigrants to travel by plane from Puerto Rico to Florida or another state, but this is also rare. While there are cases of people from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica illegally entering the U.S. via Puerto Rico, this is not a significant source of illegal entries into the states.
However, undocumented immigrants entering Puerto Rico are also committing illegal entry into the United States.
The Caribbean border
While the Caribbean border is much smaller than either the Canadian or the Mexican borders with the United States, the U.S. must defend Puerto Rico, the Caribbean border.
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