Los Angeles, .- The idea that the United States has its southern border open to undocumented immigration and drug trafficking “is ridiculous,” says writer Efe Winslow, who has just presented “The Border”, the latest novel of a trilogy on the dividing line with Mexico.
“I do not see the need to build a wall, you can not simplify the solution with a fence,” the author warns in a telephone interview from San Diego, in southern California.
The views of Winslow (New York, 1953) on the border are supported by more than two decades of research and works on the physical and moral barrier.
It is no coincidence that with “The Border” the author “brings home” the story of Art Keller, an agent of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) who has spent most of his life fighting against drug trafficking and “that now he needs to see himself. “
The novelist explains that for the conclusion of this trilogy the causes and effects of drug trafficking, the epidemic of heroin consumption, the migratory crisis and the government corruption that is bought up at the highest levels had to be developed and counted from the American side.
“The real problem is here, and many know it,” he insists.
The book comes just as the government of President Donald Trump intends to give a new battle to build his promised wall and even use the issue again for his re-election campaign in the 2020 elections.
The image of the border with a metal fence and razor wire at the top that appears on the cover of the book gives the reader a sign that they will enter a stark story, where it is not known for sure how much of the story is fruit of Winslow’s imagination or a portrait of his research.
Although the cover of the novel could support the Republican president’s requests to build the wall, the author, who has lived in San Diego since the 1990s, near the Mexican border, warns that the proposal is not from any point of view. functional.
The writer cites statistics presented by the federal government itself, which states that about 90% of illegal drugs enter the country through legal ports of entry.
A problem heightened by the corruption that he captures in his novel and ensures he touches at the highest levels and the White House itself.
“It is a hypocrisy to point to Mexico with your finger knowing that all the money from corruption comes and is handled here,” he says.
And if drug trafficking can not be stopped by the wall, undocumented immigration can not be resolved either. “The only thing is that it pushes immigrants to take more risks, and to be victims of human traffickers and drug traffickers,” he stresses.
In all these years living near the border Winslow has been closely related to the issue of the undocumented, and for him the arrival of migrants has always been a rise and fall.
The new wave of Central American families arriving at the border does not seem strange and even remembers when the newcomers camped in the back of their property.
Although “The Border” passed into the hands of the editor before the problem of the caravans increased, the book has in its secondary plot the story of a 10-year-old Guatemalan boy and other migrants who give strength to the story.
Winslow assures that immigration will always be part of the history of the border and that it is mixed in such a way that no nationality distinction can be made.
The defense of immigrants is one of the crusades of the writer. In the window of his office you can see a message in which he says “no human being is illegal”.
Although the slogan contrasts with the opinion of his neighbors, mostly conservatives, the novelist believes that with them you can establish a conversation, yes, leaving out the extreme rhetoric of Trump.
The critical message of the trilogy composed by “The Power of the Dog” (2005), “The Cartel” (2015) and now “The Border” will soon be on television with the filmmaker Ridley Scott as executive producer of this series of the FX chain.
In this new platform, Winslow hopes that the Americans understand that the solution to problems like drug trafficking “are within the United States.” (EFEUSA)
