原文标题：Migrants, drugs and gangsThe art of the practicalWays to ease the misery stemming from America’s southern border移民、毒品和帮派实用的艺术缓解美国南部边境痛苦的方法

Border troubleSmall, sensible steps could help ease America’s border woes边境问题小而明智的措施可以帮助缓解美国的边境问题

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A TRIPLE TRAGEDY is playing out on either side of the border between the United States and Mexico.

三重悲剧正在美墨边境上演。

The most visible element is a migration crisis, brought to a headby the end of a pandemic-era provisioncalled Title 42, which has allowed the rapid expulsion of migrants on public-health grounds.

其中最明显的是移民危机，因疫情期间一项名为Title 42的规定到期而达到顶峰，该规定允许以公共卫生为由迅速驱逐移民。

Officials have been bracing themselves for chaos after Title 42 expires on May 11th: some expect 13,000 people a day to seek asylumin America.5月11日Title 42到期，官员们一直在为混乱做准备：有人预计每天有1.3万 人在寻求美国庇护。

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Regulating the flow of migrants is hard enough. Stopping the flow of drugs across the border is proving impossible.

管制移民人口流动已经够难的了。而阻止毒品跨境流动就更加不可能了。

Fentanyl, a syntheticopioid, is 50 times more potent than heroin and produced in vast quantities in Mexico.

芬太尼是一种合成阿片类药物，药效是海洛因的 50 倍，在墨西哥大量生产。

It is also especially deadly, killing more people in a year than the total of Americans who died fighting wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

它也极其致命，一年内造成的死亡人数超过在朝鲜、越南、伊拉克和阿富汗战争中死亡的美国人总数。

All told, drug overdoses have now claimed 1m American lives since 1999.

总的来说，自1999年以来，药物过量已夺走了100万美国人的生命。

The third tragedy is in Mexico, where a proliferating number of criminal gangs are fighting over the profits from trafficking drugs, people and guns—and have grown powerful enough to subvert local government and muscle their way into other businesses. 第三个悲剧是在墨西哥，在那里，越来越多的犯罪团伙正在争夺贩运毒品、人口和枪支的利润--他们已经强大到足以颠覆当地政府，并以强硬手段进入其他行业。

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None of these problems has a simple solution.

这些问题都没有一个行之有效的解决方案。

The supply chains for fentanyl, for example, stretch to China (for the precursor chemicals) and are quick to adapt to any disruption.

例如，芬太尼的供应链延伸至中国（用于前体化学品），并能迅速适应任何中断情况。

America has been waging a war on drugs for half a century, with negligible success and much collateral damage.

半个世纪以来，美国一直在与毒品作斗争，但收效甚微，而间接损害却很大。

Cross-border collaboration might help, but relations between America and Mexico are touchy and likely to grow touchier as both countries gear up forpresidential elections next year.

跨境合作可能会有帮助，但美墨两国关系很敏感，而且由于两国都在为明年的总统选举做准备，这种关系可能会变得更加敏感。

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On migration, the Biden administration has groped its way to a policy that moves in the right direction: beefing up border forces, expanding legal avenues for asylum-seekers and vowing to deport illicit border-crossers swiftly.

在移民问题上，拜登政府已经摸索出一条朝着正确方向前进的政策：加强边防部队，扩大寻求庇护者的合法途径，并誓言要迅速驱逐非法越境者。

Republicans give him no credit, caricaturing him instead as letting illegal immigrants bearing fentanyl flood into the country.

共和党人不相信他，反而讽刺他让携带芬太尼的非法移民涌入美国。

Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor and a likely presidential candidate, is said to be preparing further headline-grabbingdisplays in which migrants are transported to Democrat-run states.佛罗里达州州长、可能的总统候选人罗恩.德桑蒂斯据说正在准备吸引眼球的表演，他说把移民运送到民主党人管理的州。

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Political polarisation for now rules out bold reforms on drugs or immigration (nothing will get through Congress). But in the meantime many smaller practical steps are possible.

目前，政治两极分化导致无法对毒品或移民进行大胆改革（任何法案都无法获得国会批准）。但与此同时，可以采取切实可行的小措施。

To reduce the harm caused by opioids, the government could expand access to treatments for addiction.

为了减少阿片类药物造成的危害，政府可以扩大治疗成瘾的途径。

It could also make test strips for fentanyl widely available (instead of treating them as illegal drug paraphernalia), so that people know when they are about to take (and perhaps overdose on) the lethal substance.它还可以广泛提供芬太尼试纸（而不是将其视为非法药物用具），这样就知道他们何时会服用（可能服用过量）这种致命物质。

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To relieve pressure on the border, it would help if more jobseekers were allowed in legally.

为了缓解边境压力，如果允许更多的求职者合法入境，将会有所帮助。

America’s whole immigration system is clogged up, with would-be migrants and employers sometimes waiting years for a decision.

美国整个移民系统文件积压，潜在移民和雇主有时要等上好几年才能得到官方决定。

A new report from the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington, lists a raft of reforms that could reduce a backlog of 20m applications with little money and no new legislation: from reducing duplication between agencies to eliminating unnecessary requests for evidence to extending the length of visas.

华盛顿智库“卡托研究所”的一份新报告列出了一系列改革措施，这些措施只需要少量钱而不需要新立法的情况下，就可以减少2000万份申请的积压：减少机构间的重复工作，取消不必要的证据要求，延长签证时长等。

If the system were more streamlined, employers would be able to fill vacancies more quickly and fewer people would feel they had no choice but to try their luck with people-smugglers or speculative asylum claims.

如果该系统更加精简，雇主就能更快地填补岗位空缺，绝望的人也就更少了，否则他们只能在偷渡或投机性庇护申请中去碰运气。

Mr Biden cannot solve the problems on America’s southern border; but he could ease them a little if he pushed harder. 拜登无法完全解决美国南部边境的问题；但如果他更用力地推动这些小措施，那么他就可以稍微缓解这些问题。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量661左右）原文出自：2023年5月13日《The Economist》Leaders版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene本文编辑校对: Irene仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）Title 42是美国联邦法律中的一部分，是为了防止传染病在美国境内蔓延而制定的。这项法律赋予了公共卫生官员和移民官员在特定情况下限制和禁止外国人进入美国的权力。在COVID-19大流行期间，美国政府基于Title 42规定实施了入境限制措施，以减缓病毒的传播。根据这项规定，任何试图从美国南部边境非法进入美国的外国人都可能被拘留并驱逐出境，而不考虑他们是否寻求庇护或有其他合法理由进入美国。这项规定也扩大了移民局对非法入境者的驱逐权，并暂停了大部分的庇护申请程序。Title 42规定引起了许多争议，因为批评者认为它违反了难民和移民的权利，并将许多人置于危险之中。然而，支持者则认为它是保护公众健康和国家安全的必要措施。【重点句子】（3个）A TRIPLE TRAGEDY is playing out on either side of the border between the United States and Mexico.三重悲剧正在美墨边境上演。Regulating the flow of migrants is hard enough. Stopping the flow of drugs across the border is proving impossible.管制移民人口流动已经够难的了。而阻止毒品跨境流动就更加不可能了。

America has been waging a war on drugs for half a century, with negligible success and much collateral damage.半个世纪以来，美国一直在与毒品作斗争，但收效甚微，而间接损害却很大。