Americans watched in outrage June 2018 as the human drama flashed across our news channels revealing undocumented immigrant children snatched away from their families and placed in cages at Texas border detention centers. At the time Jeff Sessions announced a “zero tolerance policy” saying that all illegal US border entries would be subject to US prosecution. President Trump remained undeterred saying that the United States would not be a camp and holding facility for migrants and refugees. (Mehlman-Orozco) In January 2017 Trump had signed an executive order convinced that a new additional 1300 mile wall would keep America safe. Constructing a new border wall could potentially worsen problems and has not been shown to fix the underlying issues associated with illegal immigration control which include human trafficking, expired visas, and decreased return migration. After a surge of undocumented immigration In 1965, Congress amended the Immigration and Nationality Act by placing quotas on Mexican legal immigration and terminating the Mexican Guest labor agreement.(Massey AJS)
In the mid-60s the guest worker network was well entrenched in the US economy due to supply and demand. After termination of the worker agreement, desperate migrants searching for work continued to enter the US as undocumented causing a surge in illegal immigration. Until the early 1990s thousands of undocumented immigrants could crisscross US borders unhindered through two main places of entry: El Paso and San Diego. In 1992 this unexpectedly changed when the border patrol built a steel fence from the Pacific ocean to San Ysidro California with the intention of blocking illegal entry.(Massey New York Times) The numbers of illegal immigrants desperate to cross through legal point of entry surged resulting in increased border wall expansion at both San Diego and El Paso areas. Desperate to make a living the immigrants simply changed their tactics and traveled to remote southern border locations to enter the US.
The government’s response was to increase the presence of border patrol and currently have employed 19500 officers with an annual budget of around $1.6 billion dollars.(McFadyen) Homeland security replaced the immigration and naturalization system with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who enforces immigration and border protection. Experts in human trafficking believe the evidence reveals that the decreased border apprehensions is a result of an increase of use of smugglers and is not a result of a border wall. (Mehlman-Orozco) Since the 1990’s undocumented migrates approach to enter the United States has changed, and more of them recognize the need to use experienced smugglers who can adjust and reorganize their responses. The migrates who are smuggled in to the US are evading detection, and are willing to pay up to $10,000 to work with a smuggler who can outsmart the border patrol. (Mehlman-Orozco)
Smugglers are resourceful and from 1990 to 2008 border patrol discovered discarded portable ladders and 101 tunnels used to smuggle people and drugs.(Warner 74). The cartels prefer using checkpoints to ship drugs into the US instead of having their resources scattered across rivers and desert.(Dear) The cartel realize that not every drug shipment will make it through checkpoint, however these losses are factored into their overall calculations Building additional wall will have no effect on the thousands of people who come here legally then remain here illegally with expired visas. The Department of Homeland Security’s data acknowledges that in 2016 approximately 417,000 immigrants out of 45 million who arrived legally, have chosen to stay here illegally.(Dear)
Estimates report that 45-50% of people entering the US overstay their visit and become part of the unauthorized population.(Warner 49) Homeland Security says the there are over one million visitors each day to the US and attempting to monitor departures is an uphill task despite Congress mandating an electronic exiting network. Walls create additional problems by preventing migratory circulation and forcing migrants to permanently settle here illegally. Systematic analysis has shown that a border wall restricts the natural circular flow of immigrants planning to return to their home country.( Mehlman-Orozco) Sociologist Douglas Massey says the wall decreased the “preference of the typical Mexican to move back-and-forth temporarily for work in the United States” and their homeland by 62% over the past 40 years.(Massey AJS)
This sharp decline in return migration means that immigrants recognize the risks and expenses associated with additional undocumented travel and made the decision to migrate to the US and not return home. A physical barrier does not address the economic incentives of immigration which include high wages, job opportunity, in search of a better life. Constructing a wall will increase reliance on smugglers and potential for human trafficking. An electronic exiting network needs to be implemented to stop visa overstays. Instead of focusing on keeping immigrants out of the US, Congress needs to focus on immigration reform that can manages the unavoidable global influx of people attributed to a global economy.
