Countries have policies helping to keep the drugs flowing. Mexico has for decades fueled organized crime with corruption - it’s been pretty easy to put large numbers of officials in cartel pockets. Lots of flowing dollars have that effect. And of course the entire immigration issue is such fertile political ground in this country, incentives don’t really align with solutions. It plays into so many of our national fault lines - this side pissed we’re “importing voters”, that side pissed were demonizing brown people, this side says evil brown people are taking jobs from Americans, that side says immigrants do work Americans won’t and we have labor shortages. These guys tell us fentanyl and terrorists flow freely between ports of entry, and that side says those claims are exaggerated.

It’s like we can cram all the wedges driving us apart into this one category called “immigration”. What politician wants to solve that? It’s too valuable to them.