It’s not that people of Mexican descent are more likely to get flipped than people of any other descent. It’s just that we vet those other people – especially when they have family in countries that are hostile to us – while we don’t properly vet people who have families in Mexico. Because honestly, what Mexican organizations could possibly have an interest in sowing corruption along the border?
Historically, many foreign intelligence services are known to use ethnicity in their favor, heavily targeting persons sharing an ethnic background found in the foreign country. Foreign services also are known to use relatives of the target living in the foreign country to their advantage. Mexican cartels use these same tools. They tend to target Hispanic officers and often use family members living in Mexico as recruiting levers… When the U.S. government hires an employee who has family members living in a place like Beijing or Moscow, the background investigation for that employee is pursued with far more interest than if the employee has relatives in Ciudad Juarez or Tijuana… Employees with connections to Mexico frequently have not been that well vetted, period. In one well-publicized incident, the Border Patrol hired an illegal immigrant who was later arrested for alien smuggling.
Mexican cartels represent an existential risk to the Mexican state, with all the cascading security implications that a collapse would entaill. And when it happens, you can be quite sure that it’ll be the US’s fault After all, we’re the ones supplying them with the guns.
On the plus side, at least this hasn’t been a weakness in our national security for decades:
Mexico traditionally has not been seen as a foreign counterintelligence threat, even though it has long been recognized that many countries, like Russia, are very active in their efforts to target the United States from Mexico. Indeed, during the Cold War, the KGB’s largest rezidentura (the equivalent of a CIA station) was located in Mexico City… if a U.S. government employee is recruited by the Chinese or Russian intelligence service, the investigation receives far more energy — and the suspect’s circle of friends, relatives and associates receives far more scrutiny — than if he is recruited by a Mexican cartel.
Our country is in good hands.
References:
* A Counterintelligence Approach to Controlling Cartel Corruption [STRATFOR]
* Mexico Rises to Near the Top of the Foreign Agenda [CT Blog]
* Video: Er, what if Mexico collapses? [Hot Air]
* Myth: 90% Of Guns In Mexico Come From The US [Jawa]
Previously:
* Memo To Mexico: UN Doesn’t Have the Authority To Tell the US What To Do On Its Own Territory. At Least Not Yet.
* Former CIA Head: Hamas And Hezbollah Cells Active In Mexico, Exploiting Open Border To Get Into The US
* Hillary Asks "Who Painted" Miraculous Lady of Guadalupe On John Diego’s Cloak
