If America wants to stop the migrant crisis, it should decriminalize drugs

The drug trade makes millions for murderous gangs. It's time to put a stop to it.

President Trump put a damper on his infamous baby prison camps last week with an executive order ending his child separation policy. It seems like a step in the right direction — though there is as yet no process for reuniting the families, and it also appears to be designed to run afoul of a previous federal ruling that families themselves can only be detained for 20 days, thus setting Trump up to restart separating families and blame it on the judiciary.

The monumental heartlessness of separating families has rightly garnered overwhelming media attention. But it's worth stepping back to examine just why people are seeking asylum in America in the first place. They are, in the main, fleeing violence and political instability — problems which could be powerfully alleviated by decriminalizing illegal drugs in the United States.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.