Editorials: Texas targeting truckers on smuggling missions

With the Mexican government cracking down on drug cartels, the criminals are using innovative methods to smuggle drugs into the United States.

Some are recruiting children as passengers, hoping their presence will help deflect suspicion from their nefarious missions.

Others recruit professional truck drivers whose “contraband” includes both drugs and people.

Gov. Rick Perry recently announced a measure to deal with the second method of smuggling, an initiative under which truck drivers convicted of smuggling drugs or people into the state would lose their commercial drivers licenses, the El Paso Times reported.

The license revocations, he added, would be permanent.

“Mexican crime syndicates have changed their tactics,” Perry said. “They're losing money. They're looking for new loopholes to exploit, and their latest target are truckers.”

In U.S. border cities such as Laredo and El Paso, residents are seeking reassurance that the Mexican drug wars will not creep across the river.

Both forms of smuggling must be addressed: The drug trade is pernicious, and regardless of where people stand on the issue of illegal immigration, everyone can agree that trafficking in human beings is reprehensible.

The latest security measure may not end the violence, but it shows that the state is willing to help its neighbor deal with a crisis that affects both sides of the border.