Texas police have been reporting arrests of children as young as 11 years old being recruited by cartels to help them smuggle drugs around the country. They call them "the expendables" and have them do minor tasks for them, such as moving cars and checking for police surveillance. Just this month, police arrested a 12 year old with 800 pounds of marijuana in a stolen car. Over 25 children have been arrested for doing similar jobs, such as being look outs or transporting drugs, and the cartels have been spreading to more and more cities. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, says that they have evidence that at least six drug gangs have organizations in Texas recruiting children. These gangs are trying to create a "sanitary zone" on the north side of the Rio Grande by forcing land owners to let them run operations on their land.
Children are easy targets for the cartels because they are less suspicious and easier to manipulate with less money. Texas officials have joined the U.S. Customs and Border Protection program called "Operation Detour" which works to inform children and parents of the danger these drug cartels pose. They go to schools and community centers where they can meet directly with students, parents, and other members of the community. Do you think this is enough to keep children in Texas safe? Should the government be more involved in this issue?
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6 comments:
We live in a sick world. Children are very vulnerable to accepting jobs like this. If you can pay a younger sibling $1.00 to take out the trash for you, you can definitely pay a child $50 or however much money looks attractive to them to transport a bag or call a guy when they see a police car.
I think that Operation Detour is doing a great thing to bring awareness, but since this is still going on, it is not enough. They should air tv commercials on children's channels in a way that would very clearly show children that it is not okay and it is very dangerous.
I agree with Lexi. At the moment, not enough is being done to stop the recruitment of children. They are not yet old enough to realize that the money they are being payed to preform these acts, doesn't really amount to a lot, or not enough to make a difference in their lives. I don't think government needs to get involved in that part just because parents can teach their kids about the value of money and not to sell your soul for it. However, if the child is from the impoverished community where basically every cent counts, then more action definitely needs to come from an outside source. TV commercials does sound like a good idea so I'll second that.
The last thing I'll say is that if government gets involved, I think the Federal government should do something about this situation because they can pass laws and regulations that all states must follow instead of just a state government which can only really only enforce action in it's own state.
I definitely agree with both of you that more has to be done to bring and end to this at. I like the TV commercial idea you brought up Lexi. I think that would be the most effective way of communicating the information to the most amount of people. I also agree with Patrick that if the government does get involved, it must be at the national level. There is nothing stopping these cartels from spreading to other states across the country so steps must be taken to stop their actions immediately before they do so.
I agree with what Lexi, Patrick, and Raquel have said. Children are definitely the easiest targets when trying to find people for jobs such as these due to their innocence and lack of experience or knowledge. Manipulating children like this is not acceptable, and since it is still happening, I agree that not enough is being done to stop it. I think education can be a key factor in limiting, or hopefully completely stopping, this. I really like what Lexi said about the commercials on shows that children watch. I think having police or authority come in to talk to young children as early as acceptable about the matter will also be very beneficial. If children are aware of such situations happening, they might be more wary or careful in the future should a stranger ask them for such help.
This is why anyone considering an electric fence around the border should stop immediately. Yes, the immigration debate is a longstanding and important issue, but when children are involved, violence is not the answer. These drug cartels are an abomination and their recent action is inexcusable. We need to put more troops around the border to not only prevent drug smuggling, but also save the children and prevent them from becoming one of these monsters in the future. Its sad because, drug smuggling across the border would not be as severe if Americans did not have such a high demand for illegal drugs in the first place. Cartels are thriving because of our vices and the best way to end the supply of drugs is to eliminate the demand.
A point of inquiry though, are the drug cartels recruiting illegal immigrant children or American citizens?
To answer your question Vinh, it wasn't stated whether the children targeted were illegal or not but I would imagine that the cartels would recruit anyone willing to work for them. I don't think that is an important detail of the situation though. Whether these children are illegal or not, they are still children and should be shielded from such activity.
I completely agree with you that it is our own fault that the cartels are thriving so much in the US. Americans are greedy people and any chance they will take any chance they get to make easy money. We are one of the few nations that is wealthy enough to be able to afford many of theses drugs among a large amount of the population and hence, it is easy for the cartels to find buyers or people willng to work for them.
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