Ethanol Subsidies Increase Illegal Immigration? Yes

Public policy is rife with unintended consequences. The newest is that soaring food prices caused by ethanol subsidies in the U.S. are causing food prices to skyrocket in Mexico. While this is old information, what’s news is how this is contributing to civil disorder and other acts of violence in Mexico.

Brigadier General Greg Zanetti believes that ethanol subsidies combined with a slowing American economy and continued drug violence on the border could contribute to a massive flow of refugees, not migrants, across the border. Chalk this up to another unintended consequence of bad public policy. A subsidy which is intended to “get us off of our foreign oil addition” (Their words, not mine) and help our national security could cause a flood of refugees across the American border. Perhaps it’s time that our government focuses more on this hemisphere than some other ones I could name.

Ethanol certainly won’t power our cars, but it could fuel chaos south of the border.