full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Will Hurd: A wall won't solve America's border problems

Unscramble the Blue Letters

WH: One of the things I learned as an undercover officer in the CIA is be nice with nice guys and tough with tough guys. And one of the principles of being nice with nice guys is to strengthen our alliances. We have a number of programs currently in these three countries that USAID and the State Department is doing to address this violence isuse. And we know, in El Salvador, one of the problems was that the police were corrupt. And so we've worked with the savaonriadls to purge the police, rehire new folks, use community pcionilg tactics. These are tactics the men and woemn in the United States of America and plioce forces use every single day. And when we did this in certain communities, guess what happened? We saw a decrease in the violence that was happening in those communities. And then we also saw a dearcese in the number of people that were leaving those areas to try to come to the United satets illalelgy. So it's a fraction of the cost to solve a pbleorm there, before it utaimltely reaches our brdoer. And one of the reasons that you have violence and crime is political corruption and the lack of central governments to protect its citizens. And so this is something we should be cintoiunng to work on. We shouldn't be decreasing the amount of money that we have that we're sending to these cnuireots. I actually think we should be increasing it. I believe the first thing — we should have done this months ago — is select a special representative for the Northern Triangle. That's a senior diplomat that's going to work to make sure we're using all of our levers of power to help these three countries, and then that we're doing it in a coordinated effort. This is not just a problem for the unietd States and mxcieo, this is a problem for the entire western hemisphere. So, where is the oitriaozagnn of American States? Where is the International dolemepnevt Bank? We should be having a coeivltlce plan to address these root causes.

Open Cloze

WH: One of the things I learned as an undercover officer in the CIA is be nice with nice guys and tough with tough guys. And one of the principles of being nice with nice guys is to strengthen our alliances. We have a number of programs currently in these three countries that USAID and the State Department is doing to address this violence _____. And we know, in El Salvador, one of the problems was that the police were corrupt. And so we've worked with the ____________ to purge the police, rehire new folks, use community ________ tactics. These are tactics the men and _____ in the United States of America and ______ forces use every single day. And when we did this in certain communities, guess what happened? We saw a decrease in the violence that was happening in those communities. And then we also saw a ________ in the number of people that were leaving those areas to try to come to the United ______ _________. So it's a fraction of the cost to solve a _______ there, before it __________ reaches our ______. And one of the reasons that you have violence and crime is political corruption and the lack of central governments to protect its citizens. And so this is something we should be __________ to work on. We shouldn't be decreasing the amount of money that we have that we're sending to these _________. I actually think we should be increasing it. I believe the first thing — we should have done this months ago — is select a special representative for the Northern Triangle. That's a senior diplomat that's going to work to make sure we're using all of our levers of power to help these three countries, and then that we're doing it in a coordinated effort. This is not just a problem for the ______ States and ______, this is a problem for the entire western hemisphere. So, where is the ____________ of American States? Where is the International ___________ Bank? We should be having a __________ plan to address these root causes.

Solution

  1. organization
  2. mexico
  3. issue
  4. border
  5. continuing
  6. collective
  7. countries
  8. policing
  9. ultimately
  10. united
  11. illegally
  12. police
  13. women
  14. decrease
  15. development
  16. states
  17. salvadorians
  18. problem

Original Text

WH: One of the things I learned as an undercover officer in the CIA is be nice with nice guys and tough with tough guys. And one of the principles of being nice with nice guys is to strengthen our alliances. We have a number of programs currently in these three countries that USAID and the State Department is doing to address this violence issue. And we know, in El Salvador, one of the problems was that the police were corrupt. And so we've worked with the Salvadorians to purge the police, rehire new folks, use community policing tactics. These are tactics the men and women in the United States of America and police forces use every single day. And when we did this in certain communities, guess what happened? We saw a decrease in the violence that was happening in those communities. And then we also saw a decrease in the number of people that were leaving those areas to try to come to the United States illegally. So it's a fraction of the cost to solve a problem there, before it ultimately reaches our border. And one of the reasons that you have violence and crime is political corruption and the lack of central governments to protect its citizens. And so this is something we should be continuing to work on. We shouldn't be decreasing the amount of money that we have that we're sending to these countries. I actually think we should be increasing it. I believe the first thing — we should have done this months ago — is select a special representative for the Northern Triangle. That's a senior diplomat that's going to work to make sure we're using all of our levers of power to help these three countries, and then that we're doing it in a coordinated effort. This is not just a problem for the United States and Mexico, this is a problem for the entire western hemisphere. So, where is the Organization of American States? Where is the International Development Bank? We should be having a collective plan to address these root causes.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
united states 13
people seeking 3
speed limit 2
undercover officer 2
border wall 2
response time 2
border patrol 2
streamline legal 2
conversation nationally 2
states government 2
nice guys 2
health care 2
drugs coming 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
united states government 2

Important Words

  1. address
  2. alliances
  3. america
  4. american
  5. amount
  6. areas
  7. bank
  8. border
  9. central
  10. cia
  11. citizens
  12. collective
  13. communities
  14. community
  15. continuing
  16. coordinated
  17. corrupt
  18. corruption
  19. cost
  20. countries
  21. crime
  22. day
  23. decrease
  24. decreasing
  25. department
  26. development
  27. diplomat
  28. effort
  29. el
  30. entire
  31. folks
  32. forces
  33. fraction
  34. governments
  35. guess
  36. guys
  37. happened
  38. happening
  39. hemisphere
  40. illegally
  41. increasing
  42. international
  43. issue
  44. lack
  45. learned
  46. leaving
  47. levers
  48. men
  49. mexico
  50. money
  51. months
  52. nice
  53. northern
  54. number
  55. officer
  56. organization
  57. people
  58. plan
  59. police
  60. policing
  61. political
  62. power
  63. principles
  64. problem
  65. problems
  66. programs
  67. protect
  68. purge
  69. reaches
  70. reasons
  71. rehire
  72. representative
  73. root
  74. salvador
  75. salvadorians
  76. select
  77. sending
  78. senior
  79. single
  80. solve
  81. special
  82. state
  83. states
  84. strengthen
  85. tactics
  86. tough
  87. triangle
  88. ultimately
  89. undercover
  90. united
  91. usaid
  92. violence
  93. western
  94. women
  95. work
  96. worked