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Dealing with the problem of illegal immigration in the USA.
Introduction
Illegal immigration in the United States has been a contagious issue. It is estimated that more than 47 million people in the country are immigrants, with more than 20 % of them being illegal. The United States is a country that has been home to immigrants since European immigrants crossed the Atlantic Ocean into North America. Almost every person in the country can be considered an immigrant except for indigenous communities; people who moved into the country from other parts of the globe have been considered immigrants after independence. Illegal immigrants are those people who live within the American national borders illegally, and this could be due to different reasons.
For a start, many illegal immigrants in the country are often those who entered the country legally but overstayed their visas. If a person enters the country as a student or tourist and fails to return to their home country after their visa expires, they are considered an illegal immigrant. Another group of illegal immigrants comprises those who choose to sneak across the American borders illegally without the approval of the department of immigration. The southern border that we share with Mexico accounts for more than 90 % of the immigrants who enter the country illegally. Many people from South and Central America illegally enter the country through the Mexican border due to its vastness and porousness (Shackel, 12).
Thesis Statement
Securing the American borders and addressing the issue of illegal immigration is a national security issue, and it deserves to be handled with the seriousness it requires. Although history has taught us that immigrants are vital to the growth and prosperity of our country, there is a need to improve border patrol and immigration law enforcement. The aim should be to ensure that those entering the country do it legally and lockout people who might be having ill intentions out of our borders. The number of undocumented illegal immigrants continues to rise by the day. Many of them are coming in to engage in illegal activities such as drug smuggling, terrorism, and human trafficking. According to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in July 2021, more than 200 000 people tried to enter the country illegally through the southern border. The numbers are alarming, and they tell of a situation that is rapidly getting out of hand. Addressing illegal immigration has become a national concern, and every American, federal, and state government must work in collaboration to address the problem.
Discussion
There are numerous ways to address the issue of illegal immigration in the country. The first focus in controlling illegal immigration is ensuring we beef up border security, especially on the southern border with Mexico. Our first line of defense in ensuring that people do not enter the country illegally is our entry points and our borders. Our southern border is vast, and other parts are remote, allowing people to cross into the country unnoticed. To curb this vice, we need to empower our border security personnel with the latest technologies and equipment to enhance their efficiency (Muthaarai, 23). We also need to increase the number of people deployed to border patrols to avoid many border security personnel from being overwhelmed. New technologies such as unmanned security patrols, drones, cameras, and new gadgets must be deployed to secure our borders. Border security is a national security issue, and we must be willing to invest a lot of finances just like we invest in the military. Enhanced monitoring of our borders will ensure a swift and faster response of law enforcement, which will result in a high number of apprehensions. If people trying to immigrate into the country illegally know that there are high chances of failure, many will be discouraged to cross, reducing the numbers drastically.
The second strategy we need to deal with illegal immigration is drafting the military in immigration law enforcement. The American military is among the elite personnel in our security organs, and deploying them would make much sense to everyone. Instead of deploying a lot of our military overseas to guard other countries and shared interests, we need to consider authorizing their deployment to our borders. Such a move would also be unprecedented and warn people considering moving across our borders illegally to reconsider their decisions. The budgeting would also not be a big issue as the military already gets huge budgets. It will be a matter of redirecting some resources to cater to border deployments. Our military also has equipment and tools that can come in handy in dealing with illegal immigrants across the border, including drones, aircraft, and high-resolution night vision cameras.
What if we could establish laws that encouraged illegal immigrants to self-deport? Many scholars believe that forced deportations should be a thing of the past, and the government should encourage people to self-deport. Unlike in forced deportations where people are sent to their origin countries without any incentives, the government should look over incentives to people who want to return to their countries (Inés Ospina, 34). By providing financial assistance, the government could help people living in the country illegally return home and start a new and prosperous life. This would also encourage more people who have overstayed their visas and are limited by current immigration status to come forward. Such a move would also help bolster the image of our country as a country that respects human rights and will give us leverage when dealing with authoritarian regimes across the globe.
Another way to deal with illegal immigration is by boosting our legal migration channels. Our immigration laws continue to be radical, and they have not significantly shifted in the past few decades. Our laws are designed to look at immigrants as aliens who want to move into our country at all costs without potential benefits to us. The fact is that immigrants are a vital part of our society, and without them, our economy will struggle. Instead of always focusing on hindering potential immigrants to immigrate into our country, there is a need to establish laws and policies that encourage legal migration. Creating programs that give people hope of legal migration reduces the number of those who want to immigrate illegally (Azizi and Kiana, 193). There is a need for more visa opportunities for people who want to come into the country as workers, tourists, or students. Such a move will ensure that immigrants can work and study legally and contribute to the development of our country through paying taxes. The move would also ensure that businesses can thrive as there will be adequate people to meet the labor shortages in industries that normally do not attract many citizens.
Conclusion
In conclusion, addressing illegal immigration is a challenging task involving balancing political, social, and economic interests. Taking action to curb the illegal immigration menace will involve being hard on many people whose only crime would be looking for better economic opportunities for themselves and their families. It is also important to acknowledge that the process will require a lot of compromises and consensus-building among all interested parties to achieve the desired outcome. Building a wall might seem the easier thing to do, but history has shown us that it might not be effective without addressing the root causes of the problem. The government must also engage governments where immigrants originate from bolstering economic development and creating job opportunities for many people who want to immigrate into our country. Addressing illegal immigration is a national and international problem requiring collaboration among governments, non-governmental organizations, and law enforcement officers to address it comprehensively.
Work Cited
Azizi, SeyedSoroosh, and Kiana Yektansani. “Artificial intelligence and predicting illegal immigration to the USA.” International Migration 58.5 (2020): 183-193.
Inés Ospina, Gloria. “THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION FLOWS TO THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.” UNISCI Discussion Papers 50 (2019).
Muthaarai, Alicent Kambura. Effects of Illegal Immigration on Security in Africa: A Case Study of Kenya. Diss. University of Nairobi, 2018.
Shackel, Paul A. “Immigration heritage in the anthracite coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania.” Journal of Community Archaeology & Heritage 5.2 (2018): 101-113.
