Organized Crime Disadvantage
Novice, JV, & Varsity Only
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V) ................................................................................................... 1
Glossary .......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Organized Crime DA (1NC Shell) (1/3) ........................................................................................................ 4
Uniqueness Extensions
Drug Violence is Decreasing—Peace Prospects are High ......................................................................... 7
Drug Violence is Decreasing—Mexico Will Stabilize ............................................................................... 8
Drug Violence is Decreasing—Cartel Bosses Have Been Arrested ........................................................... 9
Link Extensions
NSA Links—Reducing NSA Surveillance Causes Drug Trafficking ...................................................... 10
Immigration Links -- Criminal Immigration Surveillance Decreases Drug Violence ............................. 13
War on Drugs Links.................................................................................................................................. 18
Generic Surveillance Links-Surveillance key tool to solve Organized Crime & Drug Trafficking ........ 22
Impact Extensions
Drug Violence—Causes Poverty .............................................................................................................. 24
Drug Violence—Causes Gender Violence ............................................................................................... 26
Drug Violence—Causes Sex/Human Trafficking .................................................................................... 27
Drug Violence—Violence in Black Communities ................................................................................... 30
Answers To: Cartel Caused Racial Violence is Only in Chicago ............................................................ 32
Drug Violence—Causes Economic Slowdown ........................................................................................ 33
Ecnomic Slowdown hurts everyone ......................................................................................................... 35
Miscellaneous Answers to Affirmative Answers
Answers To: Other Countries Can Replace US Surveillance ................................................................... 36
Answers To: Other Agencies Fill In for NSA .......................................................................................... 37
Answers To: NSA is an Ineffective Agency............................................................................................. 38
Answers To: Dream ACT CP Causes the Disadvantage .......................................................................... 39
Answers To: All Immigration Surveillance Is Unjust/Evil ...................................................................... 40
Answers To: No Illegal Immigrants are linked to Drug Cartels ............................................................... 41
Answers To: Immigration Surveillance Isn’t Effective ............................................................................ 42
1
Organized Crime Disadvantage
Novice, JV, & Varsity Only
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Answers To: War on Drugs Is a Failure ................................................................................................... 43
Answers To: Drug Cartels Help Mexican Economy ................................................................................ 44
2
Organized Crime Disadvantage
Novice, JV, & Varsity Only
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Glossary
Cartel—an organization created to
regulate the supply of a good
Counter-Narcotics—measures used to
combat drug trafficking
Drug Cartel—a criminal organization
that primarily participates in illegal drug
markets but may also engage in human
smuggling, kidnapping, oil theft and other
crimes. Examples include Los Zetas and
the Sinaloa Cartel
Border Patrol – the Department of
Homeland Security agency that attempts
to prevent the entry of undocumented
immigrants and other persons on the
border
Trafficking—the illegal trade of
something
Force Multiplier – something that
significantly increases the potential of an
action or policy
Drug trafficking—The illegal trade of
drugs
RGV – the Rio Grande Valley, an area
monitored by the Border Patrol
Hegemony—political, economic, and or
military dominance
Insurgency—violent rebellion against
government authority
Oil Shock –a fast and significant change
in the oil market
Transnational – in more than one country
Homicide – killing of one person by
another
Drug War/War on Drugs – the term
referring to a set of strategies Mexico and
the United States currently use to fight
drug cartels. These strategies tend to be
militaristic, including military aid and the
capture of cartel members
Enrique Peña Nieto—the current
President of Mexico
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
– the US agency tasked with solving drug
trafficking
ISIS surveillance – in this file, ISIS
surveillance refers to a surveillance
system, not the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria
ICE – U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement , a federal agency tasked
with immigration policy
SOD – Special Operations Division , a
part of the Drug Enforcement Agency
that does covert information gathering
primarily surrounding drug trafficking
Kingpin – the leader of a crime
organization
Database—a collection of information for
a particular purpose
3
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
1NC Shell
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Organized Crime DA (1NC Shell) (1/3) (N/JV/V)
1. Drug cartel violence is decreasing, but continued success is key to stop persistent,
violent crimes.
Gomez, USA Today Reporter, 2015
(Alan, USA Today Reporter, April 30th, After years of drug wars, murders decline in Mexico, USA
Today, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/04/30/mexico-drug-war-homicides-decline/26574309/)
Murders in Mexico fell for a third straight year in 2014 — the most pronounced declines
occurring along the U.S. border — a sign the country is slowly stabilizing after gruesome drug
wars.¶ There were 15,649 people murdered in Mexico in 2014, a 13.8% reduction from the previous year and down from a peak of 22,480 in
2011, according to a report set to be released Thursday by the University of San Diego's Justice in Mexico Project. ¶ The reductions were steeper
along the U.S.-Mexican border. Five
of the six Mexican states that border the USA reported a
combined drop of 17.7% in the number of homicides.¶ "These data really help to underscore
that we're talking about a sea change in violence," said David Shirk, co-author of the report and director of the
Justice in Mexico Project, a U.S.-based initiative to protect human rights south of the border. "You still have elevated levels of
crime, so we still have a long way to go. But there is improvement, and we have to acknowledge that
improvement and understand why it's happening so we can try to further it."¶ The reduction in homicides does not mean
Mexico has completely solved its security problems. Maureen Meyer, senior associate for Mexico at the
Washington Office on Latin America, said Mexicans still face extremely high levels of kidnappings, extortion
and other violent crimes.¶ American travelers have also been attacked. The U.S. State Department issued a warning April 13 that
said U.S. citizens continue to be victims of carjackings, robberies and other violent crimes.¶ Meyer said the overall reduction in
murders is an encouraging trend that allows Mexican officials time to cement
improvements in the judicial system, anti-corruption programs and police practices. She said the government must
"make sure that the space opened by having less violence leads to structural changes to Mexico's
institutions to guarantee a strong rule of law in the future."
4
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
1NC Shell
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Organized Crime DA (1NC Shell) (2/3)
2. Surveillance is key to solve drug trafficking – keeping current levels is necessary
to keep pace with crime groups’ innovation
UNAFEI, 2000
(United Nations Asia and Far East Institute, TOOLS FACILITATING THE INVESTIGATION OF ILLICIT DRUG
TRAFFICKING, Group 1 Phase 2, 119TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE: REPORTS OF THE COURSE,
http://www.unafei.or.jp/english/pdf/RS_No59/No59_44RC_Group1_Phase2.pdf
The use
of traditional investigative methods to combat illicit drug trafficking has proved to
be very difficult and ineffective. This state of affairs therefore calls for the use of special investigative
tools such as controlled delivery, undercover operations and electronic surveillance (wiretapping,
communications interception, etc.) by law enforcement agencies to effectively control illicit drug trafficking.¶ However, there
is controversy surrounding the use of these techniques and thus, to a certain extent, discouragement for the law enforcement agencies to utilize
them. Their abuse may affect the rule of law, may lead to infringement of human rights. There is a fear that governments may use them to oppress
citizens under the guise of national interest. Their use therefore often sparks off politically sensitive debates. ¶ The biggest question, therefore, is
how to use these techniques consistent with the rule of law and respect of human rights. The answer to this cannot be universally obtained and
this will depend on the legal system, practice and culture of each country. There is a need therefore, to strike an agreement as to what extent the
privacy rights of individuals can be respected and at the same time keeping people safe from the effects of transnational organized crime. ¶ The
use of these techniques varies from country to country, for this reason the group had to focus on them individually. However the group has
adopted the definition of controlled delivery that is contained in Article 2 of the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized
Crime, 2000.¶ The
Electronic Surveillance investigative method was the theme of a lot of
discussions in the group, since every country has its own methods and devices, but one thing that all the participants
are aware of is the fact that criminal investigations are becoming increasingly more
difficult as criminal techniques become even more sophisticated. The challenge for criminal
investigators is to keep pace with crime modus operandi; by using increasingly
sophisticated investigative techniques. One of them that has been extremely successful is the
electronic surveillance, including both silent video surveillance and interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications.
5
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
1NC Shell
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Organized Crime DA (1NC Shell) (3/3)
3. Drug cartel caused violence results in levels of suffering that rival those of major
wars— suffering, sexual violence, and extortion all create a well-founded fear of
persecution that is unjust and should be solved
Blake, JD University of Michigan Law School, 2012
(Jilian N., former Analyst for the Department of Defense and current owner of and
lawyer at Blake & Wilson Immigraiton Law, Gang and Cartel Violence: A Reason To Grant Political Asylum from Mexico and Central America,
Yale Journal of International Law Vol. 38, http://www.yjil.org/docs/pub/o-38-blake-gang-and-cartel-violence.pdf)
The resulting level of violence
in Mexico and Central America has been extremely high. According to U.S.
conflict in Mexico and Central America has come to rival the conflicts in
Iraq and Afghanistan in terms of the scale of violence, spending and weapons.26 The United Nations reports that
the “Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala) has the highest murder
rate of any region in the world, and very high rates of other forms of violent crime.”27 In Mexico, since Calderón’s
campaign began in 2006, more than 50,000 people have been killed as a result of drug-related violence.28 ¶
military officials, the
III. BASIS FOR PROTECTION FROM GANGS AND CARTELS UNDER U.S. LAW The prevalence of gang violence in the region has been
individuals
who resist gang demands, including young men who resist recruitment, women who are
victims of sexual violence or intimidation, human rights and church activists, those who
resist extortion, lawenforcement agents, gang members forced to join gangs and trying to
leave, and others.30¶
accompanied in recent year by a steadily growing number of asylum applications in the United States.29 These applicants are
These individuals
fleeing persecution from gangs or drug-trafficking cartels in Mexico or Central
America might claim refugee, non-refoulement, or Convention Against Torture (CAT) protection in the
United States. The international legal definition of refugee is incorporated into United States law, with minor changes, in the Immigration and
Nationality Act (INA), as amended by the Refugee Act of 1980.31 The
definition contains three core elements: (1) a
well-founded fear of persecution; (2) a nexus between the persecution and a Convention ground including race, religion,
nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion; and (3) a lack of state protection. Additionally, Article
33(1) of the Refugee Convention codifies the principle of non-refoulement, which forbids a state from rendering a victim of persecution to her
persecutor.32 States party to the Refugee Convention or the 1967 Protocol are under no obligation to grant asylum to refugees, however. Under
Article 33(1), they are only prohibited from expelling or returning refugees to a country where they would face persecution on enumerated
grounds.
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Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Uniqueness
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Drug Violence is Decreasing—Peace Prospects
are High
( )
( ) Prefer studies over hyperbolic narratives—even if drug violence is high,
prospects for peace are better
Killelea, Founder and Chairman of the Institute for Economics & Peace, 2015
(Steve, Founder & Chairman of the Institute for Economics & Peace, Founder of the Peace
Index, IT Entrepreneur, April 20th, Paving Mexico’s Path to Peace and Prosperity,
http://europesworld.org/2015/04/20/paving-mexicos-path-peace-prosperity/#.VVZtbflViko)
Running contrary to the global perception, Mexico’s peace has actually improved in recent
years, underscored by a 30 percent reduction in the national homicide rate since 2013. This
remarkable increase in peacefulness is widespread. According to the Mexico Peace Index, the
last two years have seen 26 out of 32 states improving their peacefulness, with 26 recording
reductions in their violent crime rate and 23 states recording reductions in their homicide rate.¶
Despite these recent achievements, Mexico remains very violent and is the least peaceful
country in Central America according to the Global Peace Index. Since the start of the
calamitous drug war in 2007, it has dropped 50 places on the Index to rank 138 of 162 countries.
Continuing issues associated with organised crime and justice efficiency pose substantial barriers
which must be overcome for Mexico to achieve truly higher levels of peace.¶ ¶ Contrasting
with its current levels of violence, Mexico has one of the largest prospects of any country in
the world for improving its levels of peacefulness. Positive Peace – the attitudes, institutions
and structures which sustain peaceful societies – has actually improved over the last five
years. As reported in the Mexico Peace Index, some Positive Peace measures such as a ‘sound
business environment’ and ‘high levels of human capital’ compare very favourably to the global
averages.¶ ¶ However, major challenges do remain. Corruption is the Positive Peace factor
where Mexico performs most poorly, especially on measures related to corruption within the
police and judiciary. Mexico has one of the highest levels of perceived police corruption in the
world. In some states, 95 percent of the citizens believe that the police are corrupt. This has flowon effects as many crimes then go unreported. This is highlighted by the fact that only ten
percent of rapes are reported nationally and only three percent of extortions are reported in the
more violent states. Despite these statistics, there has been some improvement in the public
perception of the federal police force over the last three years, with confidence in them
increasing from 18 percent to 24 percent.
7
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Uniqueness
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Drug Violence is Decreasing—Mexico Will
Stabilize
( ) Falling violence will stabilize the region, but a downward trend is not
guaranteed—continued efforts are necessary
Shirk, PhD in Political Science, 2015
David A., PhD Political Science, Associate Professor, Political Science and International
Relations, Director, Justice in Mexico Project, April, Drug Violence in Mexico, Justice in
Mexico Project Report, https://justiceinmexico.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2015-DrugViolence-in-Mexico-Report.pdf
8 While still a far cry from 8,867 homicides reported by INEGI in 2007— Mexico’s historic
low point—such a decline for 2014 would still be very significant, sparing roughly two
thousand lives compared to 2013. SNSP, meanwhile, has reported its figures for intentional
homicides in 2014, which indicate a 13.8% percent drop in 2014, Mexico’s second double
digit percentage annual decrease in homicides since 2007. Once again, while homicide levels
remain quite elevated according to SNSP figures, thousands of lives were spared in 2014
compared to the year before; while SNSP reported 18,146 intentional homicides for 2013, that
figure fell to 15,649 for 2014.¶ Disaggregating these data by month reveals some trends that
might be missed in reviewing annual totals. First, since 2007, Mexico’s homicide levels have
been subject to relatively larger spikes and declines than in years past. There is also some
variation within a given year, particularly at the peak of violence between 2010 and 2012, as the
number of homicides documented tended to be relatively lower in the first six months of the
year, while surging in the second half of the year. ¶ Of course, past trends are not necessarily a
good basis for future predictions, so it is impossible to say whether the current downward
trend in the number of intentional homicides will continue into 2015. Still, there does
appear to be a structural shift in the violence in Mexico, as the number of homicides in
certain highly conflicted parts of the country has subsided substantially. If the current
downward trend continues, it is plausible that the number of homicides could even return
to their historic lows within the next five to ten years. However, as reported last year, since
Mexico’s violence accelerated more quickly than it has been decelerating, the number of
homicides will not reach 2007 levels until well after 2020, if the current rate of decline
continues. 10
8
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Uniqueness
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Drug Violence is Decreasing—Cartel Bosses Have
Been Arrested
( ) Huge successes pave the way for slowing the drug crime wave, but violence still
continues making continued efforts key
VR, Reporting Agency, 2015
(Vatican Radio, Reporting Agency, April 23rd, Mexico makes progress in drug war, Vatican
Radio,
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/04/23/mexico_makes_progress_in_drug_war/1138920)
(Vatican Radio) Mexico is making significant inroads into its eight year ongoing Drug War
and associated crime wave, according to its President.¶ To listen to the report click below:¶
Since Enrique Peña Nieto became President of Mexico in 2012, his forces of law and order,
have arrested or killed 93 of the country's 122 principal drug cartel leaders and organized
crime bosses. From January to March of this year, homicides and reports of kidnappings
have decreased by 27 percent and 24 percent compared to three years ago. The Mexican
Congress has just passed an anti-corruption law appointing a Special Prosecutor to a newly
created anti-graft court.¶ President Peña Nieto says: "These are compelling positive results
and significant blows to the leadership of organized crime." He does however concede that
violence continues to threaten certain parts of the country. This is mainly focused on the
Northern Border with the United States.¶ More than 100,000 people have died in Mexico's Drug
War.
9
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Impacts
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NSA Links—Reducing NSA Surveillance Causes
Drug Trafficking
NSA surveillance is necessary to reduce drug trafficking—it’s provides unique data
that has been behind numerous successes
DEA, 2004
(Drug Enforcement Agency, Account Manager, from a 2004 memo, April 20th, DEA – The
“Other” Warfighter, https://firstlook.org/theintercept/document/2014/05/19/sidtoday-deawarfighter/)
**This was a document with top secret classification before it was leaked. Because of this, some
names are omitted and marked accordingly
(U//FOUO) We are all aware that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is leading
our nation's counternarcotics (CN) efforts. But many are not aware that from the start NSA has
been at the forefront of Intelligence Community (IC) support to this seemingly
unconventional DOD mission. The novel collection and analysis techniques NSA developed
and refined against these criminal hard targets have not only resulted in major successes in
the war on drugs, but they have also proven invaluable to other critical SIGINT missions,
particularly counterterrorism, sometimes blurring the lines between the two missions.¶ (C) DEA
has close relationships with foreign government counterparts and vetted foreign partners. The
results of this team approach regularly make the headlines in the form of major drug busts and
arrests. Less known is the critical supporting role that NSA continues to play in key DEA
operations to disrupt the flow of narcotics to our country and thwart other, related crimes.
DEA, however, recognizes the unique access and sole source information NSA provides and
coordinates major cases with the S2F/ICN Product Line.¶ (C) As a result, both agencies enjoy
a vibrant two-way information sharing relationship that enhances their common mission.
Processes have been carefully established to exchange lead (foreign intelligence) information
while protecting NSA equities. The Customer Relationships Directorate (SI), the Data
Acquisition Directorate (S3), and MRSOC work with the S2F/ICN office as an integrated team
to realize these mission successes.¶ (S//SI) One of those successes: Based on SCS (US-966L)
intercept, S2F/ICN issued an OPS IMMEDIATE report on 30 March 2004 on the exact
whereabouts of Colombian narcotics trafficker Gonzalo Hinojosa, an evasive and brutal
international fugitive wanted for murder, drug trafficking, and money laundering. S2F had
the foresight to include a tearline to share the actionable intelligence with Panamanian partners.
With a short window for action, NSA's <text is omitted> worked through the Joint Interagency
Task Force (JÏTF) - South to immediately forward the information to DEA/Panama.
DEA/Panama in turn alerted the Panamanian authorities who quickly located and apprehended
Hinojosa, without knowing the information came from NSA SIGINT. As Chief <text is omitted>
noted, this is an excellent example of "outcome- oriented collaboration."
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Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
NSA Link—Covert NSA Data is Key to Solve Drug Trafficking
(___)
( ) The NSA’s covert data helps solve drug trafficking—it secretly provides
enormous amounts of information to the Drug Enforcement Agency to reduce cartel
power
O’Hehir, Journalist, 2013
(Andrew, Journalist, August 10th, The NSA-DEA police state tango, Salon Magazine,
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/10/the_nsa_dea_police_state_tango/)
Now we can see that these two arms of the national-security octopus are intertwined as well.
As John Shiffman, David Ingram and Kristina Cooke of Reuters reported in a series of articles
over the past week, the DEA’s Special Operations Division – originally created in 1994 to
battle Latin American drug cartels – routinely funnels “information from intelligence
intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities
across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.” We’re talking
about data collected by all the clandestine but theoretically legal means that Edward
Snowden’s leaks have told us about, data gathered in the name of combating terrorism that
ends up being used for entirely different purposes. These are ordinary drug prosecutions with no
links to terrorism or other national security issues, but in which the information that led to the
original arrest is treated as a state secret.¶ ¶ Documents uncovered by Reuters specifically
instruct federal agents and local police to “omit the SOD’s involvement from investigative
reports, affidavits, discussions with prosecutors and courtroom testimony.” Instead, cops and
agents are told to “recreate the investigative trail” to make it look like regular police work.
This is “parallel construction,” a marvelous and terrifying bureaucratic neologism that in plain
English appears to mean lying. For instance, it might mean claiming that a traffic stop that
led to a drug bust stemmed from a broken taillight or an illegal left turn, rather than an
NSA intercept, an overseas wiretap or a CIA informant.¶ ¶ Fakhoury’s recent post on the EFF’s
DeepLinks blog explores various ways that these deliberate deceptions appear to violate the Fifth
and Sixth Amendments, and undercut the crucial role of legal scrutiny entrusted to the courts.
They prevent judges from assessing the constitutionality of government surveillance (since they
never even find out about it), and deprive criminal defendants of the venerable common-law
right to examine and challenge the evidence against them. He also makes the broader point that
the NSA’s enormous trove of surveillance data has provoked an “unquenchable thirst for
access” among other law enforcement agencies, whose leaders imagine all the wonderful
things they could do with it.
11
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
NSA Link—NSA’s Importance in Solving Drug Trafficking is
Underestimated
(___)
( )The NSA’s importance in stopping drug traffickers is underestimated —its
secretive relationship with the Drug Enforcement Agency makes its role in the Drug
War appear smaller than it really is
Drum, Journalist, 2013
(Kevin, Journalist, August 5th, Reuters: NSA Secretly Helping Drug Agencies Target US
Persons, Reuters,http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/08/reuters-nsa-secretly-helpingdrug-agencies-target-us-persons)
A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from
intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to
authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.¶
....The unit of the DEA that distributes the information is called the Special Operations Division,
or SOD. Two dozen partner agencies comprise the unit, including the FBI, CIA, NSA,
Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security.¶ ...."Remember that the
utilization of SOD cannot be revealed or discussed in any investigative function," a document
presented to agents reads. The document specifically directs agents to omit the SOD's
involvement from investigative reports, affidavits, discussions with prosecutors and courtroom
testimony. Agents are instructed to then use "normal investigative techniques to recreate the
information provided by SOD."¶ ....A former federal agent in the northeastern United States who
received such tips from SOD described the process. "You'd be told only, ‘Be at a certain truck
stop at a certain time and look for a certain vehicle.' And so we'd alert the state police to find an
excuse to stop that vehicle, and then have a drug dog search it," the agent said.¶ This is not
surprising. As you may recall, NSA is allowed to surveil foreign nationals but not US
persons. If US persons are "inadvertently" caught up in the surveillance net, their
communications have to be discarded. However, there are exceptions for domestic
communications that "contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity, threat of
harm to people or property, are encrypted, or are believed to contain any information relevant to
cybersecurity." Drug offenses are criminal activity, so presumably NSA is allowed to keep
any drug-related conversations it collects and pass them along to the relevant law
enforcement agencies.¶ Does this give NSA an incentive to "accidentally" collect
communications on US persons, so that they can trawl through them to find stuff they're allowed
to keep? Perhaps. Either way, though, it appears that NSA is more involved in drug
investigations—and more eager to keep it a secret—than we've been led to believe.
12
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
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SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Immigration Links -- Criminal Immigration
Surveillance Decreases Drug Violence
Surveillance of illegal immigrants is key to reduce drug-related violence—only
federal surveillance programs are able to target illegal immigrants with the worst
criminal records like drug traffickers
Panta, staff writer, 2010
Silvio J., July 6th, Criminal aliens' targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
http://articles.ivpressonline.com/2010-07-06/ice-agents_24806586
Searching for noncitizens who run afoul of the law is like finding the proverbial “needle in
the haystack,” Lauren Mack, ICE spokeswoman, said, but it’s a function that ICE needs to
pursue.¶ “It’s a tremendous job,” Mack said. “But it has to be done to make the country
safe.”¶ Ferreting out those who ICE authorities call “criminal aliens” is a part of what a
specialized unit of the Violent Criminal Alien section does at varying times from month to
month, Miguel M. Munoz, assistant field office director with ICE’s Imperial Enforcement and
Removal Operation, said.¶ Identifying those with criminal convictions can come through
anonymous tips, wanted notices, booking information at the county jail or referrals from the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Office, Munoz said.¶ As required by the Immigration and
Nationality Act, ICE agents are directed to find those with serious criminal convictions on
their records, which upon review would indicate to ICE what section of the law was violated.
The law gives ICE “the authority to remove the subject from the country,” Munoz said.¶
Among the obstacles ICE agents face include locating a subject, which involves a painstaking
effort in culling as much background information, or “intel” as possible and in not disrupting any
“third parties” involved with a target, Munoz said. This means not having an operation adversely
impact children or relatives who may be at home at the time agents come looking for a specific
person, officials said.¶ Toys left in the front yard can serve as an indication that children may be
at a home and would compel ICE agents to exercise discretion in searching for a target, officials
said.¶ “They never violate or insult their dignity,” Munoz said of ICE agents in their sweeps. “In
all honesty, once you take someone from their household, we’re doing it because he or she has
violated the law. All the subjects we go after are criminal aliens.Ӧ Surveillance can involve
three to five days of checking on a target’s daily routine and also looking for “whoever goes
or leaves the premises during the targeted time,” Christopher Salgado, supervisory detention
and deportation officer with ICE, said.¶ When operations are conducted, ICE agents can spend
time checking files, conferring with immigration attorneys with ICE and checking criminal
histories, Salgado said. Other work includes verifying a target’s employment, car license and
registration and checking on referrals from other law enforcement agencies in the Imperial
Valley, Salgado said.¶ “It all depends on the case,” Salgado said of the work that goes into
intelligence gathering. “It takes a while. We do a lot of networking.”¶ At least one of the people
arrested during the ICE sweep had a drug-trafficking conviction that, on the surface, would not
measure up to anyone’s idea of a violent act. But Munoz explained that people with drugrelated convictions are pursued by ICE because the nature of the offense often “has
violence tied to it.”
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Immigration Link—Criminal Immigration Surveillance Has a
Symbolic Effect
( ) Immigration surveillance programs have both a material and symbolic effect –
they prevent America from being viewed as a safe haven for criminals and reduce
the power of drug traffickers
ICE, 2015
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, April 20th, ICE Dallas officers deport 2 Mexican men
wanted for homicide, kidnapping, http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-dallas-officers-deport-2mexican-men-wanted-homicide-kidnapping
These deportations were conducted by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Dallas. Pedro CruzCardena, 65, and Gilberto Salazar-Villegas, 38, were removed to Mexico from Dallas via
Laredo, Texas, and turned over to Mexican officials April 15. “By removing criminal aliens to
their countries of origin, ICE also removes the threat they pose to public safety in local U.S.
communities,” said Simona L. Flores, field office director of ERO Dallas. “At the same time,
these removals ensure that aliens who commit crimes abroad do not use the United States
as a safe haven from justice in their home countries.” Cruz-Cardena was convicted in May
2008 in the Southern District of Mississippi for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute
a controlled substance and sentenced to 100 months in federal prison. In June 2009, a federal
immigration judge ordered Cruz’s deportation; Cruz waived his right to appeal. The Mexican
government notified the United States that there was an active warrant for Cruz’s arrest for firstdegree murder. Cruz was released to ICE custody March 16, 2015 and deported April 15.
Salazar-Villegas was convicted July 16, 2014 in Collin County (Texas) for driving under the
influence and assault. He was sentenced to 18 months in state prison for each charge. He was
transferred to ICE custody March 2, 2015, and was deported April 15. Since Oct. 1, 2009, ERO
has removed more than 720 foreign fugitives from the United States who were being sought
in their native countries for serious crimes, including kidnapping, rape and murder. ERO
works with ICE's Office of International Affairs, foreign consular offices in the United States,
and Interpol to identify foreign fugitives illegally present in the country.
14
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Immigration Link—Non-enforcement Emboldens Drug Cartles
( ) The affirmative’s decrease of surveillance leaves us with no effective
immigration policies – doing nothing emboldens drug cartels and increases
trafficking
Inserra, Research Associate for Homeland Security and Cyber Security, 2014
David, Research Associate for Homeland Security and Cyber Security, Master of Public Policy
from George Mason, November 3rd, Ten-Step Checklist for Revitalizing America’s Immigration
System: How the Administration Can Fulfill Its Responsibilities,
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/11/ten-step-checklist-for-revitalizing-americasimmigration-system-how-the-administration-can-fulfill-its-responsibilities
Security Costs. Beyond the pure fiscal costs of immigration, non-enforcement of immigration
laws also hurts U.S. security and commitment to the rule of law. From a security perspective,
lax enforcement of U.S. immigration laws potentially allows terrorists to gain access to the U.S.
to plan and carry out attacks. At least five of the 9/11 hijackers were in the U.S. on expired visas
or had otherwise violated the terms of their visas.[9] More recently, Amine Khalifi, who was
illegally in the U.S. for 12 years, was arrested in a sting in 2012 for conspiring to use a suicide
vest against the U.S. Capitol.[10]¶ Beyond illegal immigrants engaging in terrorism—which has
so far been rare—lax enforcement of immigration laws also benefits drug cartels. While the
U.S. will never completely stop the flow of illicit drugs, weapons, and people into the U.S.,
not enforcing U.S. immigration laws and failing to secure the border makes it easier for
cartel members and associates to gain entry and remain in the U.S. in order to further their
criminal operations.[11] Similarly, perceived weakness in U.S. immigration enforcement
encourages more illegal immigrants to come to the U.S. in the hands of drug cartels that
control the smuggling and transportation routes through Mexico. Often forced to do the
cartels’ bidding, such as transporting drugs into the U.S., illegal immigrants have little
choice but to comply or be killed.[12]¶ Failure to enforce U.S. immigration law also allows
common criminals to go undeported. As described below, more than 100,000 criminal aliens
were released from the custody of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in fiscal year
(FY) 2013 despite being deportable for their criminal convictions, including homicide, arson,
and rape.[13] Additional research by the Congressional Research Service found that many of
these criminal aliens go on to commit thousands of additional crimes.
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SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Immigration Link—Non-enforcement Emboldens Cartels
( ) The aff’s relaxed immigration policies increase violence—prefer our expert
analysis – technology like surveillance and strong immigration policies are key
Kephart, JD from Villanova School of Law, 2012
(Janice, internationally recognized security expert, who served as counsel to the 9/11
Commission, JD Villanova School of Law, October, When Tragedy Is the Hallmark of Failed
Policy, Center for Immigration Studies, http://cis.org/kephart/when-tragedy-earmark-failedpolicy-death-agent-nicolas-ivie)
Recall that such threats from the Mexican cartels are not new. Two years ago Nogales
police, concerned about a spike in murders, including top politicians and police, began
stepping up enforcement efforts. The response? Outright threats from the cartels to back down,
or off-duty police would be targeted by the cartels.¶ This time, however, there was no known
warning.¶ Which bears in mind a critical question: Has a new kind of war been declared on
the Border Patrol? And if the Border Patrol is not safe to conduct their duties, does this mean a
seed has been planted to create systematic fear on our southern border (which is not that different
from what a terrorist organization does to gain a foothold)? Or was this a random event by a
bunch of thugs that thought target practice against the Border Patrol was worth a test drive,
luring an agent with a sensor hit in difficult terrain in the early hours of the morning where
support would be minimal and response difficult?¶ Residents of Naco have been complaining
lately that illegal-alien activity is on the rise, according to one former resident organizing a vigil
for Agent Ivie. My source told me via e-mail that a border rancher friend in Naco told her: "He
has had 21 trucks come through the ranch since February 2012 and believes they were
transporting drugs. The Border Patrol caught none of them." My source told me she moved
further north in Arizona last year after Mexicans set three diversion fires close to the Arizona
border that destroyed 60 homes.¶ The extent to which this murder was pre-mediated, by whom,
and for what reason remains unanswerable right now.¶ What is clear is this: The ambush of
Nicholas Ivie illustrates how political leadership that protects lawbreakers at the expense of
law-abiding citizens and law enforcement officers produces tragic results. The president has
muzzled investigations of wrongdoing in Operation Fast and Furious to hide the violence and
harm it produced, including the death of agents in the field. Nicholas Ivie's name is now added to
the large and growing list of individuals killed on both sides of the border as a result of failed
and corrupt policies.¶ The sad fact is the situation on the border can be solved. Such tragedies
are due in large part to a government that has turned its back on persons who have given their
careers to serve in government on behalf of the American people. But the border can be made
secure. It takes a combination of infrastructure, technology, personnel, and policy. The first
three are at the fingertips of the president and Congress if they choose to create a secure border.
Yet the administration has turned its back on the border in order to enable illegal entry. So now,
instead of a secure border, we have a welcome mat to illegal-alien entry with no support for
the southwestern states dealing with the drug cartels, which have become increasingly
violent inside our borders.
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SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Immigration Link—Routes into the United States
Cartels look for easy ways to get into the US – weakening immigration .surveillance
allows them to make routes without getting detected
Carducci, Reporter for Down Trend, 2014
(Joseph, writer for Down Trend, August 21st, New Immigration Crisis Developments: ISIS,
Mexican Cartels Teaming Up, http://downtrend.com/jrc410/new-immigration-crisisdevelopments-isis-mexican-cartels-teaming-up)
Sadly, what happens next is even worse. Most of the illegals who are apprehended end up being
turned loose on the streets of America. This means that we could be looking at a growing
number of both drug cartel members from Mexico (and other Central American countries)
and Middle East terrorists flooding our cities and towns…and they are not coming here just for
the free food stamps, unemployment, and welfare benefits. They mean to do us harm, in the
form of unleashing more gang violence to actual potential terror attacks.¶ This is not
something to overlook or ignore. Drug trafficking and terrorism has a long and well-established
relationship. Both of these types of groups have been known to work together in a variety of
ways, depending on the needs and strengths of each. The bottom line, though, is that they
both share the same goal: the weakening and eventual destruction of the United States.¶ It
should also be perfectly clear to anyone that Obama is really also very focused on weakening
the US from within. I fail to see any other explanation for his inexcusable failures on
immigration. He chooses which laws to enforce and even orders ICE to literally stop deporting
illegal aliens. Then, he even signals to the governments of countries to our south that if they
come, especially the children, he is not going to send them back home, which could also pave a
way for their parents to eventually come here as well.¶ Believe it or not, there is evidence now
that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, or ISIL) is…and has been…talking with the
Mexican drug cartels. Representative Tad Poe (Rep, TX) is a member of the House Judiciary
Committee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security who has been looking into this issue
for some time. On Wednesday, during the Newmax TV’s ‘America’s Forum’ he answered a
question as to whether or not there was any interaction between the two groups:¶ “My opinion is
yes. There seems to be at least a talking to each other. How much? I don’t know. But…drug
cartels use the same operational plan as terrorists groups do. They kill there opponents, they
behead their opponents, they brag about it and they have operational control of many portions of
the southern border of the United States. Mexico doesn’t. The United States doesn’t. Otherwise
they wouldn’t be crossing daily with their drugs. They’re as vicious as some of these other
terrorist organizations. We need to recognize them that this is an organized international crime
group. And we have to deal with them as such.Ӧ Actually, if you think about this from a
pragmatic viewpoint, this makes perfect sense. We know that the radical Islamic terrorist groups
want to destroy America. They have been looking for ways to get into the country. Obama,
and his loose immigration and no-security open border policies have now made easy access a
reality. So, why wouldn’t they try to get some of their terror cells into position within the
country more directly?
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War on Drugs Links
War on Drugs surveillance is necessary to stop drug cartels – surveillance has been
behind major past successes that all prove the War on Drugs is good
Beith, author on the Drug War, 2013
Malcolm, former journalist who has provided commentary on the Drug War to multiple media
outlets, A Single Act of Justice, Foreign Affairs,
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/americas/2013-09-08/single-act-justice
By treating the FARC as a terrorist organization that also engaged in drug trafficking, the
case became a model for future prosecutions. At the time, then Attorney General John
Ashcroft said that the indictment represented "the convergence of two of the top priorities of this
Department of Justice -- the prevention of terrorism and the reduction of illegal drug use -- in a
single act of justice." In 2006, a single indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the District
of Columbia named 50 high-ranking members of the FARC, and alleged that it supplied
more than 60 percent of the world’s cocaine. Prosecutors again emphasized the nexus between
narcotics and terrorism.¶ DEA operatives have also found success in penetrating the
international networks where drug trafficking and terrorist activity intersect. Between
November 2007 and March 2008, confidential sources working with the DEA and posing as
members of the FARC arranged to buy millions of dollars in weaponry from international arms
dealer Viktor Bout, ostensibly to use against U.S. helicopters in Colombia. The weaponry
included 800 surface-to-air missiles, more than 20,000 AK-47s, and five tons of C-4 plastic
explosives. In 2009, another set of confidential sources -- also posing as members of the
FARC -- arranged a deal with a trio of Malian traffickers and militants to transport
cocaine through West and North Africa and to use the profits to support the activities of al
Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. U.S. officials quickly apprehended the traffickers, extraditing
them to the United States to stand trial. Further, it was a DEA confidential source who first
uncovered an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington on October
11, 2011. Posing as a member of the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas, the source claimed to have
discussed executing the plan on behalf of Iranian agent Manssor Arbabsiar.¶ The DEA has
benefitted from larger changes in U.S. intelligence-gathering procedures through the DEA
Special Operations Division, which comprises two dozen partner agencies, including the FBI,
the CIA, the NSA, and the IRS. Internationally, the DEA has reaped the rewards of
increased flexibility regarding wiretapping by host nations. In some instances, however, its
surveillance activities have caused diplomatic tussles involving foreign politicians linked to
the drug trade itself.
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SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
War on Drugs Link—DEA Surveillance Weakens Drug Cartels
(___) War on Drugs surveillance by the DEA reduces the power of drug cartels—
special operations create a database of information that allow officials to coordinate
and successfully capture crime leaders
Cooke, Reporter, 2013
Kristina, DEA Special Operations Division Covers Up Surveillance Used To Investigate
Americans: Report, Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/05/deasurveillance-cover-up_n_3706207.html
The SOD's role providing information to agents isn't itself a secret. It is briefly mentioned by
the DEA in budget documents, albeit without any reference to how that information is used or
represented when cases go to court.¶ The DEA has long publicly touted the SOD's role in
multi-jurisdictional and international investigations, connecting agents in separate cities
who may be unwittingly investigating the same target and making sure undercover agents
don't accidentally try to arrest each other.¶ SOD'S BIG SUCCESSES¶ The unit also played a
major role in a 2008 DEA sting in Thailand against Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout; he
was sentenced in 2011 to 25 years in prison on charges of conspiring to sell weapons to the
Colombian rebel group FARC. The SOD also recently coordinated Project Synergy, a
crackdown against manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of synthetic designer drugs
that spanned 35 states and resulted in 227 arrests.¶ Since its inception, the SOD's mandate has
expanded to include narco-terrorism, organized crime and gangs. A DEA spokesman
declined to comment on the unit's annual budget. A recent LinkedIn posting on the personal page
of a senior SOD official estimated it to be $125 million.¶ Today, the SOD offers at least three
services to federal, state and local law enforcement agents: coordinating international
investigations such as the Bout case; distributing tips from overseas NSA intercepts, informants,
foreign law enforcement partners and domestic wiretaps; and circulating tips from a massive
database known as DICE.¶ The DICE database contains about 1 billion records, the senior DEA
officials said. The majority of the records consist of phone log and Internet data gathered
legally by the DEA through subpoenas, arrests and search warrants nationwide. Records are
kept for about a year and then purged, the DEA officials said.¶ About 10,000 federal, state and
local law enforcement agents have access to the DICE database, records show. They can query it
to try to link otherwise disparate clues. Recently, one of the DEA officials said, DICE linked a
man who tried to smuggle $100,000 over the U.S. southwest border to a major drug case on the
East Coast.¶ "We use it to connect the dots," the official said.¶ "AN AMAZING TOOL"
19
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Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
War on Drugs Link—Surveillance capture leaders
(___)
(___) High tech surveillance in the War on Drugs is vital in busting kingpin cartel
leaders—allows police officials to study the cartel hierarchy and has been successful
in the past
Esposito, Senior Producer and Investigator at NBC, 2014
Richard, Feb 24th, U.S. Tracked Drug Lord's Cellphones, Leading to Capture, NBC,
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/u-s-tracked-drug-lords-cellphones-leadingcapture-n37226
The U.S. has been supplying information from wiretaps to Mexican officials for many
years. But each time they tracked Guzman to a specific location, and told Mexican authorities
were to look, their quarry escaped. In 2012, the U.S. pinpointed Guzman’s address in Los
Cabos, only to watch as he eluded capture yet again.¶ “Every time he gets away, they tell us, ‘He
got out the back door,’” one American official told reporters at the time. The official said that
Americans involved in the manhunt had started to joke that there was “no word in Spanish for
surround.”¶ But high-tech surveillance soon put them back on Guzman’s tail. As U.S. and
Mexican authorities arrested various members of the Sinaloa cartel, which controls drug
trafficking throughout much of Western Mexico, they were able to use each defendant’s
cell phone to lead them deeper into the cartel hierarchy, and closer to Guzman. By February,
said officials, they were tracking four or five cellphones used by close associates.¶ And by
then Guzman had become "complacent," according to former senior DEA official Mike Vigil.
"Once you become complacent, you become vulnerable," said Vigil.¶ Mexican authorities had
also uncovered a key piece of evidence. Earlier this month, a Sinaloa courier told them during
questioning that Guzman had a series of safe houses in Culiacan with secret steel doors
connected to tunnels and to the city sewer system.¶ With the help of U.S. electronic
surveillance, the Marines were able to determine which of the seven houses Guzman was
using as a hideout, and raided the house on Monday, Feb. 17.
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SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
War on Drugs Link—Surveillance reveals cartel plans
(___)
(___) War on Drugs surveillance is crucial to solve the drug trade– domestic
surveillance equipment allows officials to catch on to the cartels’ latest strategies
and adapt
Andrews, JD from Rogers Williams University School of Law, 2012
T. Michael, JD from Roger Williams University School of Law, Assistant Professor at the
University of Maryland, The Border Challenge: An Insider's Guide to Stopping Drugs at
America's Borders, pg. 48-49
Drug traffickers often alter both the method and timing of their operations in response to
border interdiction activities, so interdiction requires constant vigilance in checking people,
equipment and commerce along the border as well a layered defense. Mobile and fixed
checkpoints on US highways near the Southwest border play complementary roles in a layered
defense against the triple threats of drug smuggling, illegal immigration, and terrorist activities.
Through the use of internal checkpoints, persons who are not checked immediately at the border
can be checked further down the line. In fiscal year 2004, 74 percent of the cocaine seized
nationally by the US Border Patrol was seized at internal checkpoints." ¶ In addition to a layered
defense on land, continued deployment of aerial surveillance is needed. Aerial surveillance
includes cameras along border positions and unmanned aerial surveillance aircraft and
drones, as depicted in Photo 5.1. ¶ Despite tireless interdiction efforts along the Southwest
border, massive amounts of drugs are still smuggled each year through legitimate crossing
points. Criminal organizations, especially drug traffickers, have exploited the huge volume
of passenger and commercial traffic that enters the United States via Mexican airports and
maritime ports. Consequently, the vast major-ity of interdictions are the result of "cold hits"—
which is enforcement jargon for drug detections that were not cued by prior intelligence. One of
the most effective methods of detecting illegal drug trafficked through legitimate ports of entry
(POE) is deployment of K-9 Units. According to one estimate, 60 percent of all drug seizures at
POE result from canine detections.-6
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Generic Surveillance Links-Surveillance key tool
to solve Organized Crime & Drug Trafficking
Domestic surveillance is the key tool to solve organized crime—it enables law
enforcement to anticipate trafficking plans and obtain evidence for court but does
not significantly infringe on individual privacy—the plan rejects this necessary tool
Ohr, Professor of Law, 2007
(Bruce G, December, Professor of Law, Georgetown University, Effective Methods to Combat
Transnational Organized Crime in Criminal Justice Processes, 116TH INTERNATIONAL
TRAINING COURSE VISITING EXPERTS’ PAPERS,
http://www.unafei.or.jp/english/pdf/PDF_rms/no58/58-05.pdf
Electronic Surveillance represents the single most important law enforcement weapon
against organized crime. There is nothing as effective as proving a crime through the
defendant’s own words. Electronic Surveillance evidence provides reliable, objective
evidence of crimes through the statements of the participants themselves. Additionally,
electronic surveillance enables law enforcement to learn of conspirators’ plans to commit
crimes before they are carried out. This allows them to survey the criminal activities, such as
delivery of contraband and conspiratorial meetings, or to disrupt and abort the criminal activities
where appropriate, making electronic surveillance particularly helpful in preventing the
occurrence of violent crimes.¶ Additionally, electronic surveillance is particularly helpful in
transnational crimes because it enables law enforcement to intercept conspirators in the
United States discussing crimes with their criminal associates in countries outside the
United States. Electronic surveillance gives United States law enforcement evidence of
conspiratorial planning against co-conspirators operating outside of the United States that would
otherwise be very difficult to obtain.¶ While electronic surveillance is extremely valuable, it is
also a very sensitive technique because of legitimate concerns for a person’s privacy interests.
These concerns impose significant restrictions on electronic surveillance. For example,
electronic surveillance can only be used to obtain evidence of some specific serious offenses
listed in the governing statute.4 If an agent or governing attorney wishes to secure electronic
surveillance, he or she must submit an affidavit to a United States district court judge containing
specific facts establishing probable cause to believe that the subjects of the electronic
surveillance are committing certain specified offenses and that it is likely that relevant evidence
of such crimes will be obtained by the electronic surveillance.5 Thus, the government must
receive the approval of a neutral independent judge to be authorized to conduct electronic
surveillance. Additionally, before electronic surveillance is permissible, the government must
establish probable cause to believe that other investigative techniques have been tried and failed
to obtain the sought evidence, or establish why other investigative techniques appear to be
unlikely to succeed if tried, or establish why other techniques would be too dangerous to try.
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Surveillance Link—Police rely on surveillance
( ) Surveillance is key—police rely on it – the plan results in undetected drug
trafficking
Lafreniere, Advocate at a Law Practice, 2001
(Gerald, Advocate at a Law Practice, March 6th, POLICE POWERS AND DRUG-RELATED
OFFENCES, Parliament of Canada,
http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/sen/committee/371/ille/library/powers-e.htm#6. Electronic
Surveillance)
Electronic surveillance plays a crucial role in the battle against organized crime, especially
with respect to the offence of drug trafficking. In curtailing the importation and distribution of
illicit drugs in Canada, law enforcement agencies rely heavily upon the interception of
private communications. Section III of this report demonstrates that the majority of
authorizations granted for by the courts allow for the use of electronic surveillance in relation to
trafficking in a controlled substance. As in previous years, many of these authorizations were
related to criminal conspiracies, crimes which are difficult for the police to detect, investigate
and solve.¶ DETECTION¶ Electronic surveillance provides law enforcement agencies with a
valuable tool to assist in the detection of crimes that are not the result of the particular
complaint. Despite their insidious effects, many of the activities of organized criminal groups
would remain undetected were it not for the active investigation of the police. Offences
such as money laundering, smuggling and drug trafficking present serious threats to the
safety and stability of communities, and the interception of private communications
provides a means by which the police can detect, and consequently investigate, involvement
in such harmful activities.¶ PREVENTION¶ The use of electronic surveillance has led to a
number of seizures of large quantities of drugs in Canada. These seizures reduce the
amount of drugs available in streets and neighbourhoods, and assist in the prevention of
crimes associated with drug abuse. Without this crucial tool, the ability of the law
enforcement community to prevent crimes and ensuing social harm would be seriously
hindered.
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Drug Violence—Causes Poverty
( ) Drug violence increases poverty—it displaces populations and businesses
Gutiérrez-Romero, Associate Professor in Applied Economics, Universidad
Autónoma de Barcelona, 2014
Roxana, PhD in Economics, December 23rd, Mexican drug violence endangers development by
increasing poverty and disrupting economic activity,
http://www.lacea.org/vox/?q=blog/mexican-drug-violence
We find that drug related homicides increased the percentage of people living in food
poverty by 3.1 percentage points in the areas with highest drug related homicides between 2006
and 2010. The percentage of people living in patrimony poverty, those who cannot afford food,
health, education, clothing, housing and public transport needs, also increased by 2.6 percentage
points in the areas with the lowest levels of drug related homicides.¶ Two factors might explain
the increase in poverty. First, the manufacturing industry in areas with the highest rates of
drug related homicides experienced a reduction in production, profits, number of
establishments, workers and remunerations. Real estate’s production (sales) in these areas
also declined. Second, in the least violent areas remunerations in manufacturing declined, and
people migrated from the more violent places. Most of these immigrants were mainly of low
earning income.¶ The areas affected by drug related homicides also experienced a small but
statistically significant increase (0.3 percentage points) in the number of children aged 6 to 14
dropping out of school early, despite not experiencing a decline in the number of schools or
teachers per school age population.¶ All these results refer exclusively to the areas that
experienced cartels or drug related homicides for the first time in 2006 or afterwards. Focusing
on this period offers the advantage of capturing the short-term impacts of cartels expanding into
new areas. In our working paper, we also show that areas that experienced drug related
homicides in an earlier period, during 2001-2005, also experienced an immediate increase in
poverty and reduction in the number of workers employed in manufacturing. Both these impacts
worsened even further in these areas during the 2006-2010 period when drug related
homicides intensified.¶ Conclusion¶ The war among drug cartels endangers Mexico’s
development by increasing the number of people living in poverty, children dropping out of
school, displacing population and disrupting local economies. In our analysis we controlled
for poverty-relief subsidies that people received from the government and remittances from
abroad. The fact that despite these transfers poverty is still on the rise suggests that these areas
need urgent complementary policies to ensure that these negative impacts do not persist
over time.
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Drug Violence—Causes Poverty Extensions
( ) Drug cartel violence is a war on the poor – it hurts their living conditions and
creates crises for them even in times of economic growth
UNCTAD, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2013
(Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Competition Law and Policy, The impact of cartels on
the poor, http://unctad.org/meetings/en/SessionalDocuments/ciclpd24rev1_en.pdf)
7. In addition to seller cartels, buyer cartels could also have a detrimental effect, especially on
poor farmers. Buyer cartels are observed in major commodity products, such as coffee,
cotton, tea, tobacco and milk on which a number of small farmers and many developing
countries heavily depend as a major source of revenue.1 In the cocoa market, nearly 90 per
cent of the global cocoa production in the late 1990s came from smallholder farmers.2 These
commodity markets are exposed to cartelization by buyers due to insufficient negotiating
power of smallholder farmers vis-à-vis the small number of buyers, normally large
transnational corporations. Considering that 70 per cent of the developing world’s 1.4 billion
extremely poor people live in rural areas, buyer cartels or abuse of market power by large
transnational agribusinesses in these commodity sectors would have a direct impoverishing
impact on the rural poor as well as the producer countries.¶ 8. Cartels could produce more
detrimental effects on the poor at times of economic recession or crisis. During economic
crisis, the poor are hit hardest and SMEs are more vulnerable to economic downturn and less
likely to survive the economic crises. Lowincome households tend to be the first ones to lose
jobs. Higher prices caused by cartels add to the drastic fall in income, thereby forcing the
poor to hardship. As an example, the Mexico tortilla crisis, initially caused by external factors,
not only hit the poorest but also drew poor tortilla makers out of the market. The situation
deteriorated when large tortilla producers benefited from the crisis and engaged in hoarding to
push prices up even further.4 Even at times of economic boom, cartels in fuel or basic food
markets could trigger crisis for the poor. Amartya Sen argues that famine might occur not
only from lack of food but from inequalities built into food distribution mechanisms. He has used
the example of the Bengal famine of 1943, which, he argued, was caused by an urban economic
boom that increased food prices, thereby causing the death of millions of rural workers from
starvation when their wages did not keep up.
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Drug Violence—Causes Gender Violence
( ) Drug violence dramatically increases violence against women
COHA, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, 2008
(October 11th, THE RISE OF FEMICIDE AND WOMEN IN DRUG TRAFFICKING,
http://www.coha.org/the-rise-of-femicide-and-women-in-drug-trafficking/)
The rise of the number of women in prisons and the surge in their crime rate are symptoms of a
prominent issue in Latin America, known as femicide. Femicide refers to the mass killings of
women, and reflects the excessive masculinity that is associated with the drug industry.[16]
The use of women is often resorted to modes of retaliation against the government for its
crackdown on drug trafficking, or as a threat to other DTOs. In May 2011, a 20-year-old
woman’s decapitated head was found inside a phone booth, with a message warning the
government to stop policies aimed at impeding criminal activity. [17] Drug trafficking seems to
heighten the attitude that women are easily disposable, even though women often hold the
family together in these societies. Femicides destroy family structures, forcing children to grow
up in an entirely unstable environment. Furthermore, increased violence toward women
creates an image that it is acceptable. Although femicide remains an issue for all of Latin
America, it has a greater presence in parts of Central America. For example, the amount of
murdered women has tripled in four years, from 2005-2009, in many Mexican states from
3.7 to 11.1 per 100,000,[18] and María Virginia Díaz Méndez, of the Center of Women’s Studies
in Honduras, states that, “Honduras comes in second to Guatemala for the highest femicide rate”.
[19] Despite growing trepidation of femicide throughout the region, it appears as though there
are little to no consequences for committing such crimes.¶ Where can we go from here?¶ From
big-name beauty queens to poverty stricken women, drug trafficking has the potential to
affect every woman’s life in Latin America. Drug trafficking is no longer a man’s world,
and it continues to involve women at an increasing rate. As drug trafficking increases, it
promotes violence against women and further cripples the legal system.[20] It is a very difficult
issue, as policies aimed at cutting down drug trafficking seem only to exacerbate the
victimization of women. Nonetheless, there is a need for better laws and efficient enforcement to
curb the many pressing issues that drug trafficking poses.¶ It was perhaps inevitable that women
would become involved in the drug trafficking industry. As Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, an
assistant professor of government at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas
Southmost College, observed, “globalization, technology and modernization have facilitated the
incorporation of women into…drug trafficking activities.” [21] Although foreseeable, no one
could have predicted how tragically it would affect women, and it has now escalated into a
seemingly immutable situation. Perhaps the only solution is to forcefully push government
officials in Latin America to take more aggressive action against the human rights
violations that inevitably crop up and the violence that emerges from drug trafficking.
Until then, the future faced by growing numbers of women affected by drug trafficking
violence remains bleak.
26
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Drug Violence—Causes Sex/Human Trafficking
( ) Cartels worsen sex and human trafficking—they complicate state efforts to solve
it and strengthen the trafficking business
Grillo, author on Mexican Drug Violence and journalist, 2013
(Ioan, July 31st, The Mexican Drug Cartels’ Other Business: Sex Trafficking, Time Magazine,
http://world.time.com/2013/07/31/the-mexican-drug-cartels-other-business-sex-trafficking/)
The fight against this trafficking is complicated by the deep involvement of the country’s
notorious drug cartels in the business. Narco gangs like the Zetas — a criminal army founded
by defectors from the Mexican military — have diversified their portfolio to include
kidnapping, extortion, theft of crude oil, gun running and lucrative human-trafficking
networks. It’s impossible to know the exact value of Mexico’s human-trafficking trade, though
the U.N. estimates the global industry to be worth $32 billion a year. “As the drug war has
become more intense, the networks that traffic women have made their pacts with cartels,”
says Jaime Montejo, a spokesman for Brigada Callejera, a sex-worker support group in Mexico
City. “Those that don’t cannot survive.”¶ In addition to selling women for sex, Mexican cartels
also have been known to kidnap women and girls and use them as their personal sex slaves.
“Human-trafficking crimes have a devastating effect on victims and their families,” says
Rosi Orozco, who served as a Mexican federal deputy, drafting the new law, and now works
closely with prosecutors. “There are parents who are searching and searching for their
children and can’t sleep because of this nightmare.”¶ The antitrafficking drive has gained
momentum in Mexico City, where a special prosecutor took power in May and has since
overseen 86 raids on hotels, bars and massage parlors, rescuing 118 women and charging 62
alleged traffickers. Other significant arrests have been made across Mexico in states including
Hidalgo and Puebla in recent months. Activists are also supporting cases as far away as the U.S.,
where Mexican women have been smuggled over the Rio Grande into forced sex work. This
month, police in New Jersey arrested six Mexican nationals on sex-trafficking and organizedcrime charges following a raid on a brothel in the town of Lakewood. “For too long, humantrafficking victims have suffered out of sight on the fringes of society,” acting state attorney
general John Hoffman told reporters on July 18
27
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Drug Violence—Causes Sex and Human Trafficking
( ) Human trafficking must be rejected in every instance—it is modern day slavery
and the second largest crime in the world
Heald, Solicitor General for the British Parliament until 2014, 2013
Oliver, Former Lawyer, current member of Parliament, Solicitor General (2012-2014), June 11th,
Modern Day Slavery: How can we stop the traffic?,
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/modern-day-slavery-how-can-we-stop-the-traffic
You might expect that a problem that had been ‘abolished’ such a long time ago would no longer
trouble our society. Important as those achievements were, I am sorry to say the ‘unconsenting’
are still enslaved today. Human Trafficking threatens the Human Rights of millions every
year and represents a new form of slavery. No civilised society should allow such torment of
people within their communities.¶ The seriousness with which the government treats this issue
is shown by the fact that its response is formulated and overseen by a dedicated Inter
Departmental Ministerial Group on Human Trafficking (chaired by my Ministerial colleague
Mark Harper at the Home Office, and of which I am a member). This acts as the UK ‘rapporteur’
on this issue. Each signatory state to the EU Directive on Trafficking has a Rapporteur
responsible for carrying out assessments of trends in trafficking in human beings, gathering
statistics, measuring the results of anti-trafficking actions, and regularly reporting to the public.
We reported on our progress in eliminating this scourge in our Inter – Departmental report which
was published in October 2012 and can be found on the Home Office website, we will continue
to do so on an annual basis. I urge you to read this report and help us shape our future work in
this area.¶ Our knowledge and experience of trafficking in the UK is always growing.
Traffickers are consistently evolving their routes, their methods of control and who they
target and so our knowledge too must be kept up to date. I hope that today that I can do
justice to some of the successes we have had in combatting this evil, and where we have yet to
succeed.¶ I’d like to take you through some of the challenges our criminal justice system faces
when tackling this modern day slavery. I’ll describe how we are working abroad to better tackle
trafficking at the source, how we prosecute traffickers in the UK, what we are doing to ensure
that victims of trafficking who come to the attention of the police because of their involvement in
criminal activities linked to the trafficking are not prosecuted, and finally highlight two landmark
cases that point to the problem of trafficking and enslavement within the UK.¶ Human
Trafficking is the second largest organised crime in the world; at any given time the profits
of traffickers worldwide are estimated in excess of $32 billion each year.
28
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Drug Violence—Causes Sex and Human Trafficking Extensions
( ) Drug cartels are involved in 70% of trafficking cases—weakening them will be
a major hit to sex and human trafficking networks
Grillo, author on Mexican Drug Violence and journalist, 2013
(Ioan, July 31st, The Mexican Drug Cartels’ Other Business: Sex Trafficking, Time Magazine,
http://world.time.com/2013/07/31/the-mexican-drug-cartels-other-business-sex-trafficking/)
.¶ Gangs like the Zetas are involved in human trafficking at many links on the chain.
Cartels control most of Mexico’s smuggling networks through which victims are moved,
while they also take money from pimps and brothels operating in their territories. Prosecution
documents show numerous cases in which cartel members have confessed to murdering pimps
who crossed them or burning down establishments that refused to pay their “quota.”
Mexican marines arrested the Zetas’ leader, Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, this month and
prosecutors say that human trafficking will be among the long list of charges leveled against him.
“The cartels know that drugs can only be sold once, but women can be sold again and again
and again,” says Teresa Ulloa, director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls
in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ulloa, who has helped hundreds of victims of sex
trafficking in Mexico, says organized crime is involved in 70% of cases.
29
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Drug Violence—Violence in Black Communities
( ) Drug cartels fuel violence in black and brown communities by deliberately
provoking turf wars, setting up profitable drug operations and staging shootings –
Chicago proves
Strausberg, Journalist and Assistant to Cook County Board President, 2013
Chinta, September 23rd, Former High Ranking Member of the Gangster Disciples blames the
Mexican Cartel for Recent Shootings Says youth need jobs, http://www.chicagonow.com/andthe-ordinary-people-said/2013/09/former-high-ranking-member-of-the-gangster-disciplesblames-the-mexican-cartel-for-recent-shootings-says-youth-need-jobs/
The escalation of violence is allegedly by designed, according to Harold “Noonie G” Ward, a
former high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples, who pointed an accusatory finger at
the Mexican cartel he says has taken over the drug trade in the black and brown communities of
Chicago.¶ Referring to a September 16, 2013 Bloomberg article entitled, “Heroin Pushes on
Chicago by Cartel Fueling Gang Murders,” Ward said it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see
how, according to a recent Fox 32 News report, Joaquin Guzman and the Sinola Cartel are
allegedly responsible for the drugs that have saturated Chicago’s black and Hispanic
communities and fueled gang turf wars.¶ As proof, Ward pointed to the report that blames
Guzman and the Sinola Cartel for allegedly being responsible for bringing heroin, cocaine,
marijuana and methamphetamine to Chicago to an unbelievable amount of almost $3 billion
which reportedly represents 80 percent of drugs in Chicago.¶ “Who comes into your city, your
state bringing that amount of drugs and someone high up doesn’t know about it”? asked Ward. “I
know this is by design. I know this for a fact.”¶ “When you take away all of the high school
programs, have no jobs and you still want these kids to act accordingly, what do you expect?
“We as black people do not own any poppy fields. We don’t own gun-manufacturing companies.
I don’t even know a black gun shop owner; yet we have all of the drugs and guns in our
neighborhoods.¶ “Politicians use kids as pawns,” Ward said not believing recent reports that
crime is down but always seeking funds to reduce the violence. Ҧ Ward does not believe the
violence is all gang related. “ A lot of that shooting is domestic violence…75 percent to the
gang’s 25 percent gang violence, he alleged. “They try to mislead the people for their political
and financial game. There’s a bigger picture.”¶ A former gang chief, Ward said, “We don’t do
drive-by shootings. They do walk-by’s.” Referring to several shootings of innocent people
including children in the park, Ward said, “It’s the same MO. It’s by design.”¶ Ward said Mayor
Rahm Emanuel and Police Supt. Garry McCarthy could stop the violence in a heartbeat. “It’s
money, big business. The Mexican cartels running all of this. From Chicago to Mexico, in
one year they made $3.5 billion. “This is about dollars and cents.”
30
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Drug Violence—Causes Violence in Black Communities Extension
( ) Drug cartel power fuels US murders and violence – cartels sit at the top of the
drug trade and let lower parts of the chain reap the consequences—Chicago proves
this outweighs other sources of violence
O’Reilly, journalist, 2015
(Andrew, February 5th, Gang warfare on streets of Chicago fueled by Sinaloa Cartel heroin,
Gang warfare on streets of Chicago fueled by Sinaloa Cartel heroin,
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2015/02/05/gang-warfare-on-streets-chicago-fueled-bysinaloa-cartel-heroin/)
The timely label, occurring 84 years after gangster Al Capone first earned it following the St.
Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929, lasted only a year as Guzmán was arrested in Mexico the
following February, but the imprint his organization made – and continues to make – on
Chicago has helped turn the U.S.’s third-largest city into one of the nation’s largest drug
trafficking hubs, replete with the violence and related crimes that come with that
designation.¶ “Sinaloa Cartel traffickers sit on the top of the pile, and they feed down all the
way to the street level dealers,” Dennis Wichern, special agent in charge for the Drug
Enforcement Administration’s Chicago field division, told Fox News Latino.¶ The drug trade in
Chicago has helped fuel pervasive gang violence that has resulted in a quickly rising
homicide rate. Chicago ended 2014 with 425 murders, and this year the city had seen 30
slayings by the end of January.¶ New York may have the famed five families of the Mafia, and
Los Angeles is the cradle of the Bloods and the Crips, but Chicago remains gangland
capital in the United States.¶ From Capone and his North Side Gang rival, Hymie Weiss, in the
1920s to the Vice Lords and Latin Kings in the 1950s to biker gangs like the Outlaws that
emerged in the city’s suburbs, the Second City has bred some of the U.S.’s most dangerous and
famous criminals over the past century. ¶ Now, however, the heavy-hitters from the criminal
class appear to be moving to Chicago from south of the border and using the city’s evergrowing Mexican population to camouflage themselves and recruit new members.
31
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Answers To: Cartel Caused Racial Violence is
Only in Chicago
( ) Chicago is part of a larger problem – drug cartel fueled violence that preys upon
minorities is spreading all across the Midwest and started at the Texas border
Keteyian, 2012
(Armen, August 23rd, Mexican drug cartels fight turf battles in Chicago, CBS,
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexican-drug-cartels-fight-turf-battles-in-chicago/)
To fight back, Riley has taken lessons he learned five years ago as agent in charge of the DEA's
EL Paso office. He's formed a 25-agency strike force featuring state and federal prosecutors,
FBI, ATF, and local police that began operation in January. Its focus: shutting down "choke
points" where gang leadership meets cartel lieutenants.¶ The same strategy he used, he said,
led to several major arrests on the Texas border. A new border in Chicago is an even
greater challenge.¶ "I'm telling you, I'm taking this personally." Riley said. "We're going to do
something about it. Now this is a marathon, it's not a sprint, and our changes here with the
strike force and the way we look at drug enforcement is going to take time. But it's going to have
a lasting effect."¶ More than ever, Chicago's problem is turning into a Midwest problem.
Cartel operations are also spreading to Milwaukee, St. Louis and Detroit.
32
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Drug Violence—Causes Economic Slowdown
Drug violence hurts growth—it’s the top factor affecting Mexico’s economic
expansion according to Central Bank surveys
Martin, Bloomberg Reporter, 2014
(Eric, Bloomberg Reporter, October 20th, Carstens Says Mexican Drug Violence Blunting
Economic Growth, Bloomberg, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-20/carstenssays-mexican-drug-violence-holding-back-economic-growth)
Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican central bank Governor Agustin Carstens said drug-related
violence is damping growth, hours after federal police took over security in 13 towns following
the alleged massacre of students in Guerrero state.¶ “There is no doubt that violence has been a
negative factor,” Carstens, 56, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Mexico City office. “This is
a problem that Mexico has been tackling for the last few years. It’s a deeply-rooted
problem.Ӧ Carstens cited a central bank analyst survey published Oct. 3 that showed public
security problems as the top obstacle to Mexico’s economic expansion, followed by fiscal
policy, weak domestic demand and international financial instability. The bank unexpectedly cut
its benchmark rate to a record-low 3 percent in June to bolster growth that has missed
economists’ forecasts in seven of the past nine quarters.¶ Mexico’s news in the past month has
been dominated by two alleged massacres involving police and soldiers. Forty-three college
students have been missing in the southern Mexican town of Iguala since last month, and 36
local police and 16 gang members have been detained on suspicion of abducting them, according
to the Attorney General. In a separate case, three army soldiers are being charged with homicide
after a June incident that left 22 people dead.¶ A surge in violence has left more than 70,000 dead
in Mexico since President Enrique Pena Nieto’s predecessor, Felipe Calderon, sent the army to
fight drug cartels in 2006, according to Milenio. Carstens served as Calderon’s finance minister
before taking the helm of the central bank in 2010.¶ The peso weakened 0.1 percent to 13.5363
per U.S. dollar at 4 p.m. in Mexico City.¶ Taking Control¶ Mexican authorities are dealing with
the issue of violence, and it’s likely to ease over time, Carstens said.¶ In the meantime, “what can
Banco de Mexico do about it? Not much. Just do our job and basically not have another
source of uncertainty in the economy,” Carstens said.
33
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Drug Violence—Causes Economic Slowdown
Mexico affects the global economy because of interconnectedness – its growth affects
other countries
O’Neil, Senior Fellow at The Council on Foreign Relations, 2014
(Shannon K., February 19th, Senior Fellow of Latin American Policy for CFR, "Mexico on the
Brink", www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/02/19/mexico_on_the_brink)
All told, Mexico is doing better than many analysts expected, but is still not reaching its
potential pace of advancement. While the recent 3 to 4 percent GDP growth is welcome
news, it is below the rate the country needs to move up the global economic ranks -- and
more important, to break out of the "middle-income trap" that leaves few resources available
to improve the quality of life for the have-nots. Opening the economy to the global winds was
necessary, but not sufficient to assure long-term development.¶ Mexico is now at a crossroads.
It could continue down a path of growth and social change to become a leading democracy
with an energetic middle class. Or it could become bogged down by its many challenges:
violence, interest-group politics, and the corrupting call of crony capitalism. Much rides on the
outcome, especially for many of Mexico's 112 million citizens who do not yet enjoy the living
standards of other OECD countries. But in an ever more integrated global economy, what
happens to Mexico's matters to the rest of the world and, in particular, to the United States.
34
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, V)
Impacts
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Ecnomic Slowdown hurts everyone
Economic growth is good overall. Growth increases life expectancy, education and
quality of life while allowing the government to fund programs for the public good.
Furchtgott-Roth, ‘13
Diana, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and former chief economist of the U.S.
Department of Labor, “Only Growth Can Sustain Us” New York Times, February 14,
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/01/16/when-growth-is-not-a-good-goal/onlygrowth-can-sustain-us
Economic growth raises standards of living for rich and poor countries alike. The more
growth, the better.¶ ¶ In developing countries, higher G.D.P. growth results in lower infant
mortality, running water, sewer systems, electricity, better schools and education for
children, as can be seen from comparative World Bank data. As electric power plants replace
wood stoves, the air is cleared of smog. As girls receive more education, birth rates naturally
decline as women choose to make use of their human capital by entering the labor force.¶ ¶ In
developed countries, economic growth gives us the tax revenue for cleaner air and water,
for missile defense, for health and education programs. Stringent Environmental Protection
Agency regulations do not come cheap. Republicans and Democrats both have extensive wish
lists for favorite government programs, and the only way to pay for these is from the tax
revenue from economic growth.¶ ¶ Here in America, we have all the food we can eat, and more
clothes than we can fit in our closets. At the same time, we’re seeing deteriorating family
structures that reduce educational performance. About three-quarters of poor families with
children are headed by a single parent. Poor children may have cellphones, but they need
competitive schools (like KIPP) to make sure they do not fall behind.¶ ¶ Our parents and
grandparents are requiring more support as their life expectancies increase. People who
live into their 80s and 90s need not just more medical services, but more technology and
health aides to be comfortable at home. This also takes economic growth.¶ ¶ Henry Thoreau
may be right that we can find God in nature. But it takes economic growth to keep nature
pristine and all of us healthy enough
to enjoy it.
35
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only)
Answers to Affirmative Arguments
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Answers To: Other Countries Can Replace US
Surveillance
( )
( ) US surveillance can solve organized crime globally—US leads in expertise and
assistance
Doyle, Former Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection at the Department of
Homeland Security, 2013
(John M. April 2nd, Former Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection at the Department of
Homeland Security, Washington-based defense and homeland security writer, Organized Crime
Knows No Borders, Homeland Security Today, defense magazine,
http://www.hstoday.us/briefings/correspondents-watch/single-article/organized-crime-knows-noborders/d0b62d84f1ae9962c511cde3414b5801.html)
As the battle against transnational criminal organizations stretches from Central and
South America across the Atlantic to West Africa and beyond, US and other militaries are
helping local and national law enforcement agencies with intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance.¶ ¶ By law, the Defense Department is the lead agency for the detection and
monitoring of aerial and maritime transit of illegal drugs, although federal law also limits the
military's assistance in US territory to civil support -- except for the Coast Guard, which has dual
military and law enforcement authority.¶ ¶ In the Americas, US Southern Command
(SOUTHCOM) is working with foreign partners to address transnational organized crime
in the Caribbean as well as Central and South America.¶ ¶ A unit of SOUTHCOM, the Joint
Interagency Task Force-South, oversees Operation Martillo (Spanish for 'hammer') which targets
drug trafficking routes in the coastal waters of the Central American isthmus. This year, 13 other
countries are participating: Canada, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France,
Guatemala, Honduras, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Spain and the United Kingdom. A
US Coast Guard team assigned to the frigate USS Gary for Martillo this year, intercepted a drug
trafficking boat and seized 600 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street value of $22 million.
36
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only)
Answers to Affirmative Arguments
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Answers To: Other Agencies Fill In for NSA
( )
( ) No other agency can fill in for the NSA’s role –it is a vital supplier of data to all
other major agencies like the FBI, CIA, and DEA
Kayyali, JD from UC Hastings, 2014
Naddia, May 20th, JD from UC Hastings, Serves on the board of the National Lawyers Guild
S.F. Bay Area, How the NSA is Transforming Law Enforcement, Electronic Frontier
Foundation, https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/05/how-nsa-transforming-law-enforcement
And it’s not just the FBI that we should be concerned about. The NSA’s role in ordinary
investigations is not new information. But every document that expands on the NSA’s
involvement in anything domestic, and not national security related, should ring alarm bells for
everyone in the United States. We know now that:¶ The NSA data is fed to the Drug
Enforcement Agency’s “Special Operations Division.” The DEA in turn uses this information
in ordinary investigations, while cloaking the source– even from judges and prosecutors.¶ The
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorized the NSA to share unminimized data
with the FBI, as well as the CIA, with the “Raw Take” order. Prior to this “agencies [had] to
'minimize' private information about Americans — deleting data that is irrelevant for intelligence
purposes before providing it to others.Ӧ Information sharing between the FBI, NSA, and CIA
has been routinized through “software which would automatically gather a list of tasked PRISM
selectors every two weeks to provide to the FBI and CIA.” (slide31.jpg). Similarly, the NSA
sends “operational PRISM news and guidance to the FBI and CIA so that their analysts
could task the PRISM system properly, be aware of outages and changes, and optimize
their use of PRISM.Ӧ And, most recently, we learned that the NSA partners with the DEA
to record nearly all cell phone calls in the Bahamas– but not for national security purposes.
This surveillance helps “to locate ‘international narcotics traffickers and special-interest
alien smugglers’—traditional law-enforcement concerns, but a far cry from derailing
terror plots or intercepting weapons of mass destruction.” In fact, a 2004 memo discusses the
NSA’s integral role in the war on drugs.
37
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only)
Answers to Affirmative Arguments
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Answers To: NSA is an Ineffective Agency
( )
( ) NSA surveillance is effective and legitimate—the agency effectively uses a large
volume of material to solve crime. Media narratives exaggerate the agency’s
infringement on privacy and its failure
Wittes, senior fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution, 2013
Benjamin, author, Co-Director of the Harvard Law School – Brookings Project on Law and
Security, Sept 9th, Five In-Your-Face Thoughts in Defense of the NSA, Lawfare,
http://www.lawfareblog.com/2013/09/five-in-your-face-thoughts-in-defense-of-the-nsa/
Critics of the agency, at home and abroad, trot out many of these facts as damning
indictments. Brazil and Mexico and our European allies are outraged—or pretend to be—
that we spy on them. Our domestic conversation is laced with fear of the sheer size of NSA
collection, as though data volume is what makes Big Brother big. But the criticism is silly. Of
course, the agency collects a large volume of material. An intelligence agency is not a think
tank or a university. It doesn’t just read newspapers, collect what’s public and analyze what
such data say. “We steal secrets,” former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden put it in
the excellent movie about Wikileaks that used this arresting phrase as its title. This is what spy
agencies do. The NSA is good at it—very good at it.¶ I, for one, think that’s a great thing.¶
Second, what the agency is actually doing is far less threatening than what people think it is
doing. The tone of the conversation about NSA activity is so over-the-top that the agency’s
actual activity gets lost in the story. The intelligence community’s own efforts to explain itself
have been less than brilliant, but the truth is that the NSA has implemented its set of broad
authorities in a tightly-controlled fashion. One can argue that the authorities in question are
too broad, or one can argue that the controls should be tighter still. But it’s hard to look at the
details of the actual programmatic activity of the NSA and emerge as alarmed as one would
reasonably be on reading the screaming headlines.¶ The disparity, and it is a vast one, between
the story in those headlines and the story in the details is partly the product of a lot of
shoddy journalism. But it’s partly also a product of the technical and legal density of the subject
matter. The costs of entry to the conversation about how the NSA is spying on millions of
Americans is low. The cost of entry to a serious conversation about what the agency is
doing, how it is doing it, and how both interact with relevant statutory and constitutional
law is not low. It’s very high. And a great many more people—journalists, members of
Congress, and members of the public—thus feel pulled to the story about an out-of-control
spy agency. It’s so much easier, and it maps so neatly onto all of the post-Watergate prejudices
of our political culture.
38
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only)
Answers to Affirmative Arguments
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Answers To: Dream ACT CP Causes the
Disadvantage
( )
( ) Dream Act policy enhances the best forms of surveillance – it streamlines the
search for criminal illegal immigrants and repeat offenders while creating a
pathway to citizenship for others
Goodwin, National Affairs Reporter, 2011
Liz, June 28th, Napolitano defends ICE immigration memo,
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/napolitano-defends-ice-immigration-memo162814031.html
Napolitano testified before the Senate Judiciary committee to push for the passage of the
Dream Act, a 10-year-old bill that would allow young people who were brought into the country
by their parents as children to become citizens if they join the military or go to college. The bill
passed the House but died in the Senate last December.¶ Grassley and GOP Texas Sen. John
Cornyn questioned Napolitano closely over a new memo released by ICE chief John
Morton, which emphasizes that the government's priority is to deport dangerous criminals.
The memo also tells ICE agents to take "particular care and consideration" when illegal
immigrants are veterans, elderly, ill, have been in the country for a long time, or are victims of
crimes. Immigration experts say the memo just re-states ICE's previously articulated priorities,
but immigration hawks and ICE's union leaders have derided the memo as "backdoor amnesty."¶
"I think he could not be more wrong." Napolitano said of union leader Chris Crane who
criticized ICE's policies as amnesty.¶ "And I don't know where he gets his information, but the
enforcement record of this administration is unparalleled. We have enforced the law. We
have improved the removal of criminal aliens, and we have removed more people from the
country and we've been criticized for that. But it's our belief that enforcement of immigration law
is very important."¶ The Obama administration deported a record-breaking 392,000 illegal
immigrants in fiscal year 2010, half of them with no criminal records. (Over-staying a visa is
considered a civil offense, while crossing the border into the United States without papers is a
misdemeanor crime.)¶ Napolitano also said that ICE is working on developing a system to
"allow us to identify as early as possible people who are caught up in the removal system
who in the end do not fit our removal priorities." A Department of Homeland Security official
told The Lookout Napolitano is referring to their efforts to create a "a streamlined process to
identify individuals who have been entered into removal proceedings and do not match
ICE's removal priorities." It would help ICE focus on removing "criminal aliens, repeat
immigration violators, fugitives and recent illegal border crossers," the official said.
39
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only)
Answers to Affirmative Arguments
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Answers To: All Immigration Surveillance Is
Unjust/Evil
( )
( ) Not all surveillance is evil – criminal immigration surveillance is the best
possible option by focusing on the most dangerous parts of society instead of
targeting each individual
ICE, 2011
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, September 28th, ICE arrests more than 2,900 convicted
criminal aliens, fugitives in enforcement operation throughout all 50 states,
http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-arrests-more-2900-convicted-criminal-aliens-fugitivesenforcement-operation
ICE conducted the first successful Cross Check operation in December 2009, and has since
conducted Cross Check operations in 37 states, including regional operations in the Southeast,
Northeast and Midwest regions. In May, ICE conducted the first nationwide Cross Check
operation. These previous Cross Check operations resulted in ICE arresting 4,506 convicted
criminals, fugitives and aliens nationwide who have illegally re-entered the United States after
removal.¶ Last week's enforcement action was spearheaded by ICE's National Fugitive
Operations Program (NFOP), which is responsible for locating, arresting and removing at-large
criminal aliens and immigration fugitives. The officers who conducted last week's operation
received substantial assistance from ICE's Fugitive Operations Support Center (FOSC) and ICE's
Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) both located in Williston, Vt.¶ ICE is focused on
smart, effective immigration enforcement that targets serious criminal aliens who present
the greatest risk to the security of our communities, such as those charged with or
convicted of homicide, rape, robbery, kidnapping, major drug offenses and threats to national
security. ICE also prioritizes the arrest and removal of those who game the immigration system
including immigration fugitives or those criminal aliens who have been previously deported and
illegally re-entered the country.
40
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only)
Answers to Affirmative Arguments
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Answers To: No Illegal Immigrants are linked to
Drug Cartels
( )
( ) The plan strengthens the cartel drug market—many undocumented immigrants
are forced to carry drugs into the US, increasing cartel power
Bailey, Author, 2008
(Rayna, twenty-three years of experience as an author and publisher, Project Editor at Morton
Publishing, Global Issues: Immigration and Migration, pg. 97-98)
The link between illegal immigration and illegal drug trafficking has become almost
indisputable and the crime-related problems for law enforcement officials and private citizens
living on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border are steadily increasing. A 1997 editorial
predicted the future of illegal immi-gration and illegal drug smuggling between Mexico and the
United States: "It would appear that the illegal immigration problem is also tied to the drug
trafficking problem. The trips of literally hundreds of so-called 'mules; ille-gal aliens
carrying drugs and attempting to enter the United States are reportedly facilitated each
week by the Mexican drug cartels.""9 Addition-ally, evidence suggests that Mexican drug
dealers spend more than $500 million annually to bribe corrupt Mexican police and military
members as well as U.S. and Mexican customs officials willing to ignore the illicit activi-ties and
thus assuring easy passage of illegal aliens and illegal drugs across the border.'" ¶ The problems
with illegal drug trafficking have continued to increase. In 2005 Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, near the
Texas border, experienced "more than 100 unsolved killings in the last year, downtown
crossfires, brazen assassina-tions [a new police chief on his first day of work in June and a city
council-man on Aug. 5], sending in [Mexican] federal troops to replace local police officers who
were thought to be in league with criminal gangs and the kid-nappings of at least 43 Americans
in the last 12 months."121 The 2006 arrest of the head of one of Mexico's top drug gangs based
in Tijuana, whose family drug cartel had served as the model for the drug cartel portrayed in the
2000 movie Traffic, did little to slow down the illegal drug flow from Mexico. That year a 2,400foot-long smuggling tunnel was found along the U.S.-Mexico border that linked a
warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico, to one in San Diego, Cal-ifornia. It was one of 35 such
smuggling tunnels discovered that link the United States and Mexico, enabling the
undetected illegal passage of people and drugs between the two countries.'22 ¶ As violence at
the border related to smuggling illegal drugs and illegal immigration escalated, in July 2006
the U.S. House Subcommittee on Inter-national Terrorism and Non-proliferation convened the
first of several hearings to discuss border security. Subcommittee chairman Rep. Ed Royce (RCalif.) told congressional leaders in attendance, "Drug cartels, smuggling rings and gangs
operating on both the Mexico and U.S. sides [of the border] are increas-ingly well-equipped
and more brazen than ever before in attacking federal, state, and local law enforcement
officials." Rep. Ted Poe (R-Tex.) added, "My opinion is that we should expect no help from
Mexico on this issue. The Mexican government policy is to promote entry into the United States,
not stop it."'23
41
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only)
Answers to Affirmative Arguments
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Answers To: Immigration Surveillance Isn’t
Effective
( )
( ) Surveillance is key to deterring illegal immigration—investments make huge
differences in enforcement at the border
Bridenastine, MBA from Cornell University, 2014
(Jim, Naval Aviator in the US Navy Reserve, MBA Cornell University, Member of the US
House of Representatives, October 30th, Congressman Jim Bridenstine Visits Southern Border,
http://bridenstine.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=276)
The Obama Administration is utterly failing to protect American sovereignty and safety. Based
on the response at my Securing America Town Hall, it's clear many folks in my District
understand that border security is national security. ¶ Last Friday, I went on a fact-finding visit
to the southern border with my friend Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). We visited with the U.S.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel manning the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) sector.¶
The RGV is immense. The sector covers 316 border miles, about 35,000 square miles total,
and spans 34 Texas counties. RGV is the most trafficked sector in the country for human
smuggling and drug cartel activity. RGV accounts for about 50% of total annual apprehensions
of illegal immigrants along the southern border. Rep. Blackburn and I visited the McAllen
Border Patrol Station and RGV Centralized Processing Center before meeting with CBP agents
and National Guard personnel on the front lines.¶ Here are my takeaways:¶ 1. We need to
reallocate funding to border security. Rio Grande Valley CBP apprehended over 250,000
illegal immigrants in FY14 with only 3,000 agents and an operational budget of less than $20
million. Those numbers are woefully insufficient, and funds can be reprogrammed from lower
priority accounts. ¶ 2. The Obama Administration is prioritizing environmental protection over
border security. Protected Wildlife Refuges comprise over 60% of the RGV area. Border Patrol
operations are totally hamstrung in refuge areas by regulations which limit access and provide a
safe haven for cartels to smuggle people and drugs. ¶ 3. Access and surveillance are key
enablers of immigration enforcement. RGV leadership told me that providing only 2 or 3
more aerostat surveillance balloons would make a huge, immediate difference by greatly
expanding coverage. Since this is a national security issue, I intend to introduce provisions in
next year's National Defense Authorization Act to authorize a military transfer of surveillance
technology to the CBP.
42
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only)
Answers to Affirmative Arguments
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Answers To: War on Drugs Is a Failure
( )
( ) The war on drugs may not be perfect, but it has been successful – it has
decreased drug demand and crime and its contribution to prison population and
racial violence is declining
Lane, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, 2014
Charles, Master of Studies in Law from Yale Law School, has taught Journalism as Georgetown
University, Feb 19th, Drug legalization claims are cloudy, Washington Post,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-lane-drug-legalization-claims-arecloudy/2014/02/19/fd577128-98cf-11e3-b931-0204122c514b_story.html
But the data do make one thing clear: If the goal of the war on drugs is to limit demand for
drugs, then you can’t say the authorities are losing. According to federally sponsored surveys
that track drug usage, the rate of current-month powder and crack cocaine use dropped by half
in the past 10 years. Meth use fell by a third; heroin use has remained flat.¶ True, marijuana
use rose slightly overall — but it fell among 12- to 17-year-olds, a result that even legalizers
should applaud since they generally don’t favor allowing minors to smoke.¶ Meanwhile, even
as drug prohibition continued, violent crime and property crime fell, dramatically. Not only
did the number of murders in the United States decrease from 24,703 in 1991 to 14,612 in 2011
but drug-related murders declined from 1,607 to 505, according to Justice Department
statistics. Some 6.5 percent of murders were related to drugs in 1991, but only 3.4 percent were
in 2011.¶ The drug arrest rate fell from 142.1 per 100,000 in 1991 to 97.8 per 100,000 in 2011.
Yes, blacks were still 3.9 times more likely to be busted for drugs than whites in 2011 —
but that ratio was down nearly 50 percent from the one recorded 20 years earlier.¶
Marijuana arrests account for a bigger share of drug arrests these days, 44.3 percent in
2011 vs. 22.4 percent in 1991. But when you compare marijuana arrests to actual days of
marijuana usage — busts per toke, so to speak — the story’s different. By this measure,
“enforcement intensity” fell 42 percent between 2007 and 2012, according to drug-policy
expert Keith Humphreys of Stanford University.¶ Some “war.” It’s a myth that prisons are full
of low-level pot smokers. Less than 1 percent of the state and federal prison population is
doing time for pot possession alone; most of these prisoners are dealers who pleaded guilty
to possession in return for a lesser sentence, according to the 2012 study “Marijuana
Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know,” published by Oxford University Press.
43
Organized Crime Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only)
Answers to Affirmative Arguments
SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16
Answers To: Drug Cartels Help Mexican
Economy
( )
( ) Drug cartels do not help the Mexican economy—they plunged Mexico further
into crises during the recession and scare off legitimate sources of economic growth
Emmott, Senior Correspondent for Reuters, 2009
Robin, April 3rd, Drug war hits Mexican economy in crisis,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/04/03/us-mexico-drugs-economy-analysisidUSTRE5325PG20090403
"The issue of security has effected economic growth in Mexico," Finance Minister Agustin
Carstens said recently.¶ "If we could resolve this issue it could give the economy an extra
shine of at least 1 percent," he said.¶ Central bank Governor Guillermo Ortiz blamed the
peso's fall to a 16-year low against the dollar last month on investor alarm even as the Mexican
and U.S. governments and international economists insist Mexico is far from becoming a failed
state.¶ "Evidently the insecurity has had an impact on investors' behavior," Ortiz told a
recent banking conference.¶ Mexico's government says the economy will shrink 2.8 percent
this year, tumbling into recession on a sharp drop in U.S. demand for Mexican exports.
Many economists say the slump could be even more dramatic.¶ The turf war between
Mexican drug cartels has become the biggest test facing President Felipe Calderon, a strongwilled conservative who took power in late 2006.¶ U.S. President Barack Obama will visit
Mexico this month, and is sending high-tech gear and hundreds more agents to the border to
fight the smuggling of drugs, weapons and cash.¶ In Mexico's border states, where violence has
been the most intense, business people say that on top of a collapse in exports to the United
States and falling domestic sales, some are forced to pay protection money to gangs.¶ "They
demand that you pay into a bank account or they'll kill you," said a bar owner in the northern
city of Monterrey who gave his name only as Emmanuel. "Aside from the fear, it's an
economic blow, its like paying taxes twice."¶ Others say some foreign firms are putting off
investments as they see Mexico as too unsafe.
44