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The article presents response to the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys' paper "The Dangerous Myths of Drug Sentencing Reform." Topics discussed include federal prison population explosion due to mandatory minimum drug sentences, data on incarcerated Americans from 1920-2013 and drug offenders sentenced to mandatory minimum sentences; and data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission revealing false claim on violent drug trafficking.

The article aims to question and disprove the popular belief that human smuggling services over the Mexico-U.S. border has become an increasingly profitable industry as border control has improved and the process has become more sophisticated. The author claims that while many believe that small smuggling rings have been gradually replaced by larger, more organized criminal groups with connections to drug cartels, which then make a greater profit, the reality may be that the smuggling organizations are being forced to pay higher fees to pass through corridors controlled by the cartels, making the business less profitable and decreasing the number of Mexican citizens seeking to cross the border illegally into the United States.