Human Smuggling Rings Drive Mexico Violence

WASHINGTON -- Last week, the Obama administration announced a new interagency initiative involving the government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, designed to put a stop to the drug-fueled violence that has swept the northern parts of Mexico in recent months. Among the initiatives, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice officials -- with their Mexican counterparts -- will confront the criminal enterprises that traffic drugs, arms and cash across the border.

Many in Washington welcomed the invigorated strategy, and rightly so: Increased and effective cooperation between the U.S. and its southern neighbor is long overdue. Bush administration policies combining highly punitive domestic immigration enforcement with heavy-handed border controls have done little to stem the tide of illegal immigrants, much less repair the hopelessly broken immigration system itself. ...