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Notes -
I mean the issue here is that Theres so much hanging on the verbiage that I think there are gaping holes in our ability to protect ourselves. There are lots of non-state actors who would love to be able to disrupt the United States. And the loophole as I understand it is that as long as tge entity sending people into the country is not a legal state and the people sent are not legal members of a military organization, that there’s basically nothing we can do. They can flood the streets with drugs, commit crimes, possibly even commit terrorist acts, and there’s no way to do anything.
Keep in mind that non-state actors can be pretty powerful. ISIL never officially had a state, but it had effective control of a good chunk of MENA and carried out pretty horrific executions. Al-qaida goes without saying. Sinhola syndicate, MS-13. These groups have effective leadership and often control territory.
I think to tie the government’s hands in dealing with gangs that have effective control over their countries of origin through corruption and outright violence just means that their problems are going to end up here. Problems like drug cartels being able to control government officials (Plata o Plumba — silver (a bribe) or lead (aka killing you or your family)) are common occurrences in South America. If the people who can do that in El Salvador do so American cities, that’s not a minor issue.
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