Border Insecurity: Why Big Money, Fences, and Drones Aren’t Making Us Safer

Longmire (Cartel), a national security analyst and consultant for the National Geographic’s television show Border Wars, argues for delineating a hierarchy of threats along the border: “[w]e must focus the vast majority of our border security apparatus on preventing [terrorists… drug traffickers, human traffickers and smugglers, and violent criminals] from even attempting to enter our country.” In a conversational tone replete with entertaining and unsettling anecdotes, Longmire introduces readers to those guarding the border, those trying to cross it, and members of nearby communities. With particular expertise on the Mexican cartels, she believes that “the fight against cartel money laundering deserves a much bigger share of the border security spotlight.” Disparaging costly walls and fences and hi-tech gadgets as ineffective and wasteful, she makes the case that no amount of machinery is more valuable than highly trained and motivated agents, whether human or canine: “There is nothing in the entire technological arsenal of the planet Earth with a sensory capability superior to Fido’s nose.” Longmire also suggests that more attention should go to the northern border, enumerating several recent incidents where terrorists and criminals crossed over from Canada. With practical suggestions for policing the borders, informed by experience on the ground, the book provides an easy, quick, energetic, and nonpartisan introduction to the subject. Agent: Diane Stockwell, Globo Libros Literary. (Apr.)