If ever there was doubt about Mexican cartels' danger to our state, it was dispelled by the recent series "Drug cartels in Oregon" (published in The Oregonian June 23 to 27).
"Cartels and their allies control nearly every ounce of heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine flowing into the region," reported Les Zaitz. "At last count, authorities were aware of no fewer than 69 drug trafficking organizations selling drugs in the state, nearly all supplied by cartels." In 2011 and 2012, Zaitz noted, cartel-supplied heroin killed almost 300 Oregonians; "meth and cocaine claimed dozens more."
The series, however, neglected to examine illegal immigrants' role in cartel operations. And it ignored how Senate Bill 833, the new state law granting illegal immigrants "driver cards" will enable cartels to operate here more easily.
The fact is this: illegal immigrants comprise a substantial portion of cartels' ground-level operatives. "Thousands of undocumented immigrants," notes the online Encyclopedia of Immigration, "work as couriers, smuggling narcotic and other banned drugs into the United States." In a recent story for National Public Radio, John Burnett reported that cartels regard illegal immigrants as "just another income stream" who are, "increasingly, dragooned into helping the gangs" that pack drugs across the border.
In America, reports the U.S. Department of State, drug-dealing gangs include the savage Mara Salvatrucha, whom reporter Nicholas Zimmerman has written is "composed primarily of illegal immigrants from El Salvador," and the California-based 18th Street gang -- some two-thirds of whose members, according to author Heather Mac Donald, have been identified as here illegally.
In Oregon last month, The Oregonian reported illegal immigrant Albino Miranda Camarillo's sentencing "for convictions including possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine." In Medford, the Mail Tribune reported illegal immigrant Hector Anglin Lopez's arrest "on charges of distribution and possession of methamphetamine and heroin."
How would illegal-immigrant driver cards ease cartels' distribution of drugs throughout Oregon?
It's simple. If illegal immigrants were to obtain a state-issued document permitting them to drive, they would enjoy, notwithstanding their violation of U.S. immigration law, a de facto legal presence in our state -- an invitation to stay, indeed, issued by the governor and Legislature.
Afterward, then, if a state trooper stopped someone transporting illegal drugs and the driver presented a state-issued driver card, notes Oregonians for Immigration Reform communications director Jim Ludwick, "the trooper may lack probable cause to search the car for contraband." Mere contravention of immigration law would be unlikely to suffice as grounds to suspect lawbreaking beyond the traffic violation.
The likely result: many illegal-immigrant drug couriers possessing driver cards and stopped by police, after being issued a traffic citation, would be sent on their way without a search.
But illegal-immigrant driver cards may yet be stopped. A group operating as "Protect Oregon Driver Licenses" is working to put a measure to repeal the driver-card law onto the November 2014 ballot. If the group collects 58,142 signatures of registered voters by Oct. 4, the law's enactment, currently scheduled for early next year, will be postponed until after the vote -- and if the law is rejected by voters, scrapped entirely.
For its series, our state's citizens owe The Oregonian a debt of gratitude. And to the countless Americans who have been killed or ruined by cartel-supplied drugs, they owe their help to deny cartels the ultimate green light to their continued success: driver cards for illegal immigrants.
Richard F. LaMountain of Cedar Mill is a chief petitioner of the referendum campaign to repeal Senate Bill 833. More information: www.ProtectOregonDL.org.