Securing The Homeland And Its Borders Is The United States

In our past history, The United States Customs and border officials have been focused on relatively common matters of enforcing laws regarding trade and immigration, watching over agriculture and economic interests from pest and disease, and processing people, vehicles and goods. After the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, the primary concern was the homeland security. The threat of terrorists and terrorist tools coming through our borders all add to an increased set of dangers to The United States. Is it the responsibility of our United States Military to defend our country from these threats? The following myths are often understood as true, when in fact they are not.

The problem of drugs coming over into the United States from Mexico is not new, but it is serious and in spite of many efforts by American law enforcement and border authorities, it continues day after day. This paper reviews the problem from several perspectives and brings to light attempts the U.S. has made to stop drug trafficking on our border with Mexico. The biggest issue regarding border security is the power of the drug cartels, and the majority of emphasis in this paper is directed towards the cartels.

Immigration has been the major source for America’s growth.The United States has the most immigrants in the world ("Nation of Immigrants"). Russia has the second most with only one fourth the number in America ("Nation

Illegal immigration into the United States is occurring at massive scale. More than 10 million undocumented aliens currently reside in the U.S., and the population is growing massively per year. On one hand, the presence of so many aliens is a powerful testament to the attractiveness of America. On the other hand, it is a sign of how dangerously open our borders are.

The Unlawful border crossing in the U.S. Southern border has been of political interest for the past decades. It has been the primary source of the illegal trades into U.S. from Mexico. Despite the government efforts to end the act, there have not been long-term solutions to the Menace. The vital approach is to understand the structural nature of the border and the socio-cultural nature of the inhabitants that facilitates the illegal act across the border. The lawful bill in place seems not to offer a practical solution to combating the problem. The existing border and immigration policies should be revised to provide a possible settlement to the illegal trade across the borders. Also, the border barriers should be adequately constructed and guarded with border security officials. Another crucial area for consideration is the cooperation between the two countries in combating the illegal trade across the border. A cross-border initiative like Merida by President Bush would have been the significant initiative in promoting the U.S. Mexico cross-border collaboration in combating the Illegal Border Crossings. Due to the well-coordinated nature of these criminal networks, full federal cooperation like Boarder Enforcement Security Taskforce (BEST) should act in combating the organized gangs.

By placing the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), immigration is considered a national security issue by default. Whether or not the issue is treated seriously is up for debate, as the situation constantly is an issue in media and in political campaigns. However, border fences have been increased as well and the amount of agents with CBP (Andreas, 2009).

The Unlawful border crossing in the U.S. Southern border has been of political interest for the past decades. It has been the primary source of the illegal trades into U.S. from Mexico. Despite the government efforts to end the act, there have not been long-term solutions to the Menace. The vital approach is to understand the structural nature of the border and the socio-cultural nature of the inhabitants that facilitates the illegal act across the border. The lawful bill in place seems not to offer a practical solution to combating the problem. The existing border and immigration policies should be revised to provide a possible settlement to the illegal trade across the borders. Also, the border barriers should be adequately constructed and guarded with border security officials. Another crucial area for consideration is the cooperation between the two countries in combating the illegal trade across the border. A cross-border initiative like Merida by President Bush would have been the significant initiative in promoting the U.S. Mexico cross-border collaboration in combating the Illegal Border Crossings. Due to the well-coordinated nature of these criminal networks, full federal cooperation like Boarder Enforcement Security Taskforce (BEST) should act in combating the organized gangs.

The issue of illegal immigration is one of the hotly debated topics in almost every facet of society, especially among political leaders. This topic has also received huge media attention and reaction in the recent past including an article written by William Finnegan and published by The New Yorker. The article focuses on addressing the issue of borderlines and is based on the move by 17 Congress members, who wrote a letter on 28th April 2010 demanding an instant action from President Obama to enhance border security. While the increase in illegal immigration has declined in the recent past, there is still a great need to enhance border security, particularly in the as violence in the neighborhood of U.S. Mexico has continued to escalate at an alarming rate. Therefore, evaluating the need to improve border security to lessening illegal immigration is vital for enhancing the country's security and understanding its impacts on America's economy and labor force.

Since the 1980s, the US government has undertaken initiatives to make its borders more non-porous to illegal immigration from its neighboring countries. The menace of illegal immigrants seeking better opportunities in the USA started reflecting in the 1970s. The migrating people are motivated by the better non-skilled or semi-skilled employment opportunities in the USA and the relatively higher remuneration for services rendered in the USA than in the neighbor countries especially Mexico (Hanson and Spilimbergo 17). Countries where these people flocked such as the California, Texas and Arizona began experiencing illegal immigrants’ populations’ menace. The main efforts have been along the Mexican and Canadian borders where walking immigrants freely used to walk through. The need to secure the borders has been rising steadily. The successive governments have realized the need for secure borders and it had responded by dedicating more resources to these areas. The need to secure the USA borders has not been groundless, illegal border immigration remains to be the most potent entry point for illegal drugs, smugglers of contraband goods and criminals especially terrorists. In light of these dangerous threats that can be made possible by pours border; it is of utmost need that the U.S. government tighten our borders to neighboring countries.

“In 2014, 5.8 million unauthorized immigrants from Mexico lived in the U.S.,” according to Pew Research Center (Krogstad). Regulating the number of illegal immigrants from entering the United States has become an increasingly significant issue for the federal government’s agenda after, the number of unauthorized immigrants reached a peak in 2007 at 12.2 million, when this group made up 4% of the U.S. population (Krogstad). An abundance of proposed solutions have been offered to limit the steadily increasing number of illegal immigrants from reaching American soil, such as: mandating E-verify, a system that determines whether or a not a person is eligible to work in the United states, strengthening border security, and fortifying interior enforcement measures in the United States (Illegal Immigration and Border Security). Another major plan sources from President Donald Trump, who hopes to build a wall spanning between the United States and Mexico. This idea has ignited numerous opposing arguments that have picked out its irrationalities, and display how Donald Trump’s proposal to erect a wall generates more complications than benefits.

Illegal immigrants help boost the United States economy by paying some taxes. Like American citizens, illegal immigrants may pay local, state, and federal taxes including sales tax that helps support government services that they may not be able to access (Ewing 9). Since more American citizens are becoming aware of the benefits of an education, openings are being created for illegal immigrants in low paying jobs (Nadadur 1037-1052). Americans, unlike illegal immigrants, have more diverse careers. Aliens are more concentrated in specific job areas, resulting in a decrease in immigrant labor cost. This helps boost the United States’ economy (Carter 777-795). Of the approximate eleven million illegal immigrants in the U.S., most work in labor intensive jobs. Careers such as construction and agriculture tend to attract illegal aliens and they account for about twenty-five percent of the work force in these areas (Ewing 9). Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve admits that illegal immigrants help improve the United States economy and does not suggest turning them away (qtd. in Quindlen 90). Anna Quindlen, in her article “Newcomers By Numbers,” agrees with Bernanke and believes that immigrants are the factor that helps keep prices low. She also adds that immigrants are not causing American citizens unemployment, but are simply taking the low wage jobs that citizens are not willing to do and even boosting the economy (90).

United States Border Patrol has been around since 1904 enforcing and regulating laws under the immigration and Nationality Act. U.S. border patrol is now under the Department of Homeland Security, which was created as a response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Over the years, their jurisdiction and missions have changed to better protect the safety of nation. Although border patrol is a need for any nation, their extensive acceptations to constitutional laws can often be taken advantage of. The mission of the U.S. border patrol should be to prevent illegal aliens, which are a threat to American society, from reaching their purpose. Frequently, their purpose can be confused or executed in a bias manner.

According to the independent Center for Immigration Studies, in January 2000 there were 7 million illegal aliens living in the United States and the center estimated that number to grow by half a million a year (Peak, 2009, pg. 245). Based on this fact, the reality is that the minority has turn into a majority and has fulfilled the melting pot. Peak explains that ever since the incident of 9/11 the country has taken precaution and other measures to challenge in protecting borders. This even was a remarkable time of history for many citizens

The United States has led the fight against criminal activities from Mexican borders for many years. Criminal activities along the United States and Mexican border range from drug trafficking, human smuggling and an economy that disruptive. These are illegal activities scholars have argued could lead to the failure of Mexico as a country and the spread of violence to the United States. The illegal activities are not only a threat to the economy of Mexico and United States but also to the rest of the world due the impacts associated. The border between Mexico and US is of essential significance because it provides the link between the two countries. The border provides passageways through which either country can access the other via land or air means. Although the border is of significance to both countries, smuggling of drugs and trafficking human are main causes of violence between the countries. Drug cartels in Mexico smuggle drugs into the United States and this drives a war between them and the US government. The economy and the peace between Mexico and US is also affected significantly due to the illegal activities. To minimize the violence caused by these illegal activities, the US government need to act against the activities. The United States needs to increase the economic aid and military intervention to Mexico to fight the drug cartels, otherwise it could become a failed state; spreading more violence across the US border.

“The processing of service related functions will remain within the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), however the role of the investigations unit (interior enforcement) is not clearly defined.”…An example is the well-known bracero program that enabled mostly Mexican laborers to pick fruit in the southwest…In the past, opposition to similar bracero programs (now referred to as guest worker programs) was based on fears that the temporary workers would not return home.“ I feel like giving a illegal immigration Department rules and then allowing those rules to be bent in order to get cheap labor undermines their work. To show its more about security than anything else I would say that it was stated that a mass majority of illegal aliens come through other means beside the Mexico-US border. ”However, the top 15 sending countries accounted for 89% of the total illegal alien population and included Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras, China, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Brazil, Haiti, India, Peru, Korea, and