MEXICO'S EXPORT OF METH

Mexico's major role in meth production
Posted: 21 Jul 2011 11:43 AM PDT

Mexico has entered the major leagues of methamphetamine production, a status underscored by the army’s seizure this week of 840 tons of chemicals used in the manufacture of the illegal stimulant.
The army said it found a warehouse containing the chemicals near Queretaro, barely a two-hour drive north of Mexico City.
As you can see in the army photo, the chemicals were neatly lined up in blue barrels and in white sacks stacked aboard pallets. A forklift is in the background. The photo indicates that the illegal drug organization behind the chemicals is sophisticated.
The army said in a statement that the seizure Monday, included 787 tons of phenylacetamide and 52.5 tons of tartaric acid, chemicals required for meth production. Reuters quotes an expert here saying it may be the largest seizure of chemicals used in meth manufacture ever. No word yet on the likely Asian source country of the chemicals.
Migrants who drive without a license
Posted: 21 Jul 2011 10:11 AM PDT
I was in southern Mexico for a few days earlier this month researching stories on migrants and spoke with numerous Central Americans, some of whom were veterans of the trans-Mexico trip to ‘el norte.’
I was struck by two facts at migrant centers that I visited: One was the frequency with which migrants told me they had been caught driving without a license in the U.S., then deported. The other was how many of the migrants said they had been convicted of U.S. felonies and how lightly they treated their criminal records.
After maybe the third time hearing a migrant tell me about his felony, I turned to the photographer, a Chilean friend who lives in the Bay Area, and shook my head. I wanted to say, “A felony is a serious thing, dude. What got into you?” They talked about their convictions as if they were as mundane as getting the light shut off by the power company. An oversight. Bad luck. Engaging in illegality while residing in the States as an undocumented person had put in peril everything they struggled for.
On the driver license issue, I know how difficult it must be to live in the U.S. without a vehicle. But risking driving also seems foolhardy. Walk, bike, take public transportation. Find a way to live close to the job site. But if you drive without a license, you are likely to get caught and deported. We talked to one Colombian-born young man who'd lived 23 years of his life in Texas, all on the straight and narrow. Then he got busted for driving without a license. He now is in effect a stateless person. He doesn't fit in in Colombia but will live only in the shadows if he makes it back to Texas.
I thought of this as I read here and here how Washington state and New Mexico are again cracking down on undocumented people getting licenses. I’ve read the arguments both pro and con. Denying licenses to undocumented people jeopardizes public safety and drives up insurance rates, some argue. Others like Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico say fraud rings operate as far away as Chicago to get illegal migrants driver licenses from her state.
I don’t know the answer but certainly there are many, many migrants who seem more than willing to drive with or without a license.