Homeland security

Homeland security demands more than just a border wall

John Kelly, the retired Marine four-star general who is Donald Trump’s reported pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, is admirably suited to defending U.S. borders. More surprisingly, he may also moderate some of Trump’s more extreme positions on illegal immigration — which would help both the U.S. and its neighbors.

During his three-year-plus stint as head of the U.S. Southern Command, Kelly focused on the threat posed by Latin American drug traffickers who supply almost all of the cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine entering the U.S. He also warned repeatedly that the same smuggling networks that facilitate the trade in drugs, illegal workers, sex slaves and endangered wildlife could also enable the infiltration of terrorists.

Yet Kelly’s approach wisely went beyond interdiction and military training and support. As he told Congress, “95 percent of my efforts are not military. It’s economic development.”