Nowhere else in the world does an invisible line draw such a disparity in wealth and lifestyle. Our border with Mexico divides one of the West's richest countries with a struggling third world economy. The nature of the border presents many unique issues; Mexican refuges looking for a better life here in America, Mexican drug lords exporting drugs to drug savvy America, American jobs going overseas for cheaper labor, as well as the integrating of our two cultures. Mexican immigration is a liability in our country, for reasons that I will state. Yet despite its threat to the American way of life and economy, many powerful elites believe in amnesty because: it drives down labor costs (but they forget to mention workers wages as well), it is "racist" (or at least many political figures will have you believe), and it is a huge untapped constituency. I believe that it would be in the United States best interest to increase our military presence and use of high tech surveillance on the border and continue to work bilaterally with Mexico, as well as create harsher domestic laws to help limit the flow of illegal drugs and immigrants into our nation. The first major concern regarding the borders for the United States is illegal immigration. In January of 2000, the INS estimated that there were 7 million illegal immigrants in the United States with the number growing by about 500,000 a year. Under the Bush Administration, funding has increased along main entry points, displacing illegal immigrants points of entry into the country. Yet the increase has displaced immigration to rural immigration points, causing many every year to die from starvation and heat stroke. Despite the harsh conditions, immigration has grown rather th... ... middle of paper ... ...the problem. In the past our government has been persuaded by special interest groups, and the federal government is very sensitive to public opinion. In order to put the average Americans interest above special interest groups, the American public needs to demand a material solution to the border problem. Anti-drug commercials and programs in schools are nice, but are the equivalent of throwing a bucket of water on a wildfire; its just not going to get the job done. Bibliography: Andreas, Peter. Border Games: Policing the US-Mexico Divide, Cornell University Press, London, 2000. The Center of Immigration Studies, www.CIS.org, October 25, 2004. Bustamante, Reynolds, and Hinojosa. US-Mexico Relations, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. 1992. Ingraham, Laura. Shut up and Sing. Regnery Publishing Inc, Washington DC, 2001.
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Show MoreThe article by Rob Guerette is a case study involving the widely-reported increase of immigration into the United States. It tackles migration issues as well as related issues such as border security , security initiatives by individuals.. The article also provides in-depth research about the impact of illegal immigration into the United States including migrant deaths, deaths of non-migrants at the border, border security and the challenges faced by United States border patrol officers. The main purpose of the article was to provide an explanation as to whether the Border Patrol has any effect in saving the lives of people attempting to enter into the United States (Guerette, 2007).
The doors to the land of America have been left wide open, and with the smooth southern breeze flowing inside comes the risk for an assortment of disease, political and economic failure, and violence. These are brought in by illegal immigrants from Mexico who walk into the country by the millions without second thought. Americans are forced to pay high taxes for the price of citizenship, many swimming in poverty and struggling to get by while the infestation of Mexican illegal immigrants snatch away jobs and feed off of government services that were paid by well-meaning citizens. At the same time, these aliens often start up gangs, bringing violence that affects the everyday lives of hard-working Americans, as they fight over turf that wasn’t even theirs to begin with. There is only one possible solution to this problem, to end all Mexican illegal immigration, and that is to expand the United States’ borders over the country of Mexico.
Cases involving illegal immigrants have been booming at an unprecedented rate in the U.S. since the late 1990s. To absolve this matter, border security has been enforced throughout the entire country with the objective to reduce the entry of illegal immigrants across the border. These actions include the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, increasing security at the national borders and screening. This whole initiative has reduced the number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. However, current findings have proven that increasing enforcement and investment in the current method of border security has given a huge negative impact to the nation. The U.S. government should not invest in nor enforce the current method of border security because it prevents the rapid growth of the U.S. economy, robs illegal aliens of their human rights, and, surprisingly, causes an influx in the pool of undocumented migrants in the country.
The U.S. is slammed by growing numbers in population. It seems that many do not think of the long term effects of this increase. This is one of the most significant problems Americans face today, yet no one talks about the problem, when it comes to the debate over immigration. “The current world population is over 6 billion and increases at a rate of 76,570,430 people every year. Since 1950, U.S. population has nearly doubled - growing from 151 million to over 294 million today. If present trends continue, our population will exceed 400 million by the year 2050. Immigration contributes over one million people to the U.S. population annually. The total foreign-born population in the U.S. is now 31.1 million, a record 57 percent increase since 1990. About 8 million of those are here illegally--a 4.5 million increase since 1990. Almost one-third of all immigration during the 1990s was illegal. An NPG demographic analysis of age distribution, fertility, and mortality data shows that if there had been no immigration to the U.S. since 1990, the population in 2000 would have been 262 million–19 million less than the 281 million counted. Thus, post-1990 immigrants and their children accounted for 61 percent of population growth during the last decade.” (Negative Population Growth. 2004. http://www.npg.org/index.html).
In 2013, nearly 1.7 million immigrants entered the United States -- a nation built with the blood and sweat of the millions of immigrants who came to it -- in search of a better life, one free from tyranny and oppression. However, only nine hundred thousand of these immigrants entered the country legally, vesting their time and resources into the legal residency “green card” program -- the very first step to full citizenship (Monger). The other seven hundred thousand immigrants entered the country illegally, exploiting security failures on the US southern border, and policy failures in Washington, DC (Morgan). While a large proportion of the undocumented population poses no immediate threat
For over ten years, efforts to make changes to the United States immigration system have been put aside due to wars, attacks within our homeland and even worldwide financial crisis but it seems as though this being brought up more and more often. The history of the US immigration policy was more concerned with immigration enforcement over immigration reform. It was not until a few years ago that the US citizens voted they were tired of enforcement-only immigration policies and the pain they caused on immigrant families. So most feel now is the time to draw up new immigration laws that reflect American values and beliefs, and it ne...
One of the most controversial issues debated today is immigration. This issue raises many questions on the pros and cons of allowing so many immigrants to enter this country. The majority of people coming to live in America are from third world countries. The United States has been known as the nation of immigrants since the 1960s. Like always there are people who support immigration while others are against it. As immigration continues to grow the number of people who oppose it does as well. The growth of illegal immigration has increased to 5 million, despite many policies establish to prevent it. One major debate about immigration is the impact it has on the economy and whether the growing number of immigrants is a major threat to this country.
Illegal immigration is a “hot” topic in our country. There is controversy between the state and federal governments over who has authority, and our elected officials in Washington are addressing the issue, with limited success. The majority of us have some opinion on the subject, and our opinions tend to be based on how the issue will impact us. We question if illegal immigration is good for us. What are the costs to us? Is it in the best interest of our country? As nearly twelve million people have secretly slipped across the border to invade our space, our concerns have increased. While our concerns are important, we should not limit ourselves to a one-sided view. Only by understanding both sides of the issue, will we be inspired to work for an equitable solution
Immigration has quickly come to the surface as one of the United States’ major problems. More specifically, illegal immigration on the Mexican border. Everyday more and more people sneak across the border in hopes of a better life. Many Americans consider it to be a bad thing, but it is not. In some ways these people do improve our country. People of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds cross the border. Many are women and children looking to start over. About 175,900 immigrants enter the US every year from Mexico. Some things that come along with immigration are border militarization, amnesty, deportation, and the threat of terrorism.
The largest task for the US government is protecting the Northern American borders with Canada and Mexico as well all ports of entry. Without the proper border security, we cannot have a secure nation. After 9/11, the government spent billions of dollars upgrading the nation’s security systems but borders security remains weak. The borders are an unobstructed point of entry for illegal immigrants, drugs, weapons, money laundering, human trafficking and terrorist groups. The security challenges along the border offer a variety of issues. The current model in use to protect and deter illegal immigrates, criminals, drug lords, terrorist and human trafficking is ineffective. It is the government’s responsibility to stop these illegal activities and provide protection from all the current problems. The US must set the goal to tighten its border security to decrease the free flow of illegal activities and potential terrorist and WMD’s. This paper will highlight the current problems with border security and the illegal activities that surround the border.
Illegal immigration has been a continuing problem in which many people have offered solutions; some have worked better than others. Secure Communities is a program that was implemented in 2008 and has caused serious controversy because of the mandatory nature of the new program policy. This paper will review an article called Federal immigration enforcement is mandatory, memo says. In addition, the pros, cons, and various implications will be reviewed.
Illegal immigration has been a source of mounting concern in the United States since the 1970’s. Statistics indicate that the past ten years have witnessed an increase in the number of illegal immigrants with the number estimated to increase in the future. “The percentage of illegal immigrant population from Mexico was 59% (or 6.8 million) as of January 2013. Other countries with large amounts are El Salvador (660,000) Guatemala (52000), Hondorous (380,000) and China (280,000)” (Infoplease 1). The rising number of illegal immigrants over the past ten years has led to an increasing concern about the effects of illegal immigrants on wages, national security, and public finances. Evidently, illegal immigration has been a source of economic stress, increased insecurity, low healthcare services, and reduced education standards. To delve deep in understanding the negative impact of illegal immigration, this paper critically explores how unauthorized immigration negatively impacts various social economic aspects.
As of today there has been a major problem with immigration and the people who are supposed to be taking care of it have been doing nothing about it. Most recently president elect Donald Trump has not had the best of luck with Mexico. He and his supporters wish to build a border wall between Mexico and the United States. This has angered many people throughout the country and in Mexico, there are different views on the border wall, many are in favor of not building one since it would complicate the relationship with Mexico and the United States. A border wall should not be put into place between the U.S. and Mexico. Since the wall will be built for immigrants, they are outraged that Trump’s vision of immigrants is so horrible, immigrants are not the only ones outraged. Many others find Donald Trump’s views irrational are racist.
The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2) While some argue that illegal immigrants burden the United States of America and its economy, others believe that they have become essential and are an important part of the US, economy.
One of the major issues surrounding border security is illegal immigration, “For the past two decades the United States, a country with a strong tradition of limited government, has been pursuing a widely popular initiative that requires one of the most ambitious expansions of government power in modern history: securing the nation’s borders against illegal immigration” (Alden, 2012). Many people are trying to enter the United States without the proper documentation and everyday they risk their lives and others just to make it across these borders. To avoid this law enforcement and other border security has threatened these illegal immigrants with detainment and arrest and different forms of punishment. In the efforts to deter the problem, it has been far beyond feasible because they still manage to get across and it does not change their intention...