Many people seem to think that solving the illegal immigration (U.S./Mexico) border crisis is impossible. This is such a first world problem, but they do have plausible points in their reasons for believing so. They think that there are already too many illegal aliens here, securing the border would be too expensive, and the U.S. economy would fail. The question is, how many more lives will it cost to solve this issue? Hundreds of migrants have lost their lives in various ways, especially attempting to cross the border. As for those that have survived the trek across the border, desert, and mountains (Almost 200 bodies were found from Arizona crossings both in 2012 and in 2013. -LosAngeles Times), life hasn't exactly been made easy. Are we going to waste their lives, too?
In a perfect world, every place would be a fantastic and unique place to dwell; topics like this wouldn't even be an issue. Since that's technically not a plausible likelihood, personally, I still wish everyone could have the opportunities that we do and that it was easy for everyone to come and go as they please in a safe and efficient manner. However, this is a just a wish and not a possible reality. Therefore, I am forced to accept that there must be some sort of jurisdiction in the matter.
Many illegal immigrants already live in the United States. According to solution contesters, mass deportation would cause an uproar. Even if we decided to legalize all the people already here, our problem will still grow. As for border security, the cost could be nothing but incredibly large and even in our strongest of times we would have issues affording it.
Though Trump and other politicians have been spouting the number to be over 30 million, Homeland Security sticks to their data specifying a steady decline from the 12 million unauthorized immigrants in 2007 (the number does include a calculated estimation of those that are not counted in the census AND a margin of error).
If there was a zero-tolerance security zone that went all across the border, but had ample spacing because of a wall, then the number of guards would change. This idea would potentially create more jobs, which would actually be a very good thing. We could build a wall like the Great Wall of China. Also, harsher penalties for not going through legally could be enacted, which would cause less attempts and therefore less deaths from the attempts themselves. My worry is that heavier military involvement usually results in more deaths, not less. For even just that reason, I don't feel that this is our best solution.
Anyone, nor no one should be allowed to cross the border because that would be unfair as well as bad for our relations and economy. We shouldn't just choose one extreme or the other as it sounds like most of our potential politicians are proposing. It should be much easier to be considered for legalization and Visas for foreigners who would like to study, visit, or take business trips to the USA. Fair laws should definitely be enforced. It doesn't make sense that immigrations laws are so different for every country/region of the world. Like I said before, I myself am not against the opportunities for people to be accepted in, but I can't ignore the harsh outcomes resulting in so many deaths and sit around letting it keep on the way it currently is.
Really, though, building a bigger wall wouldn't do us much good. It would be very expensive and laborious. The people trying to get in would just find other ways and other places to enter. We must remember that there is a reason these humans are willing to risk everything they know and love with such a high probability of failure and be sensitive to that. According to Amnesty International, there are around 33.3 million people internally displaced and over 14.2 million refugees in the world. "In 2014, 1.3 million foreign-born individuals moved to the United States... India was the leading country of origin for new immigrants, with 147,500 arriving in 2014, followed by China with 131,800, Mexico with 130,000, Canada with 41,200, and the Philippines with 40,500... Including lawful permanent residents, temporary nonimmigrants, and unauthorized immigrants. (migration policy.org -April 2016)" So, if there are over 33.3 million plus 14.2 legal pariahs in the world, and we only had 1.3 million of them come here in 2014, and Mexico doesn't even have the highest rate of entrance, why are we making such a huge fuss about this in particular?
When it comes to economy, America is not currently very strong in comparison to its potential. We have recently been in the path of recession. Those opposed to sending away illegal aliens are certain that nobody else would work for low wages/standards. Possibly, this could raise and partially rewire our economy. Fixing part of what made the situation bad to begin with could be a truly beneficial and efficient solution. However, what would be even better would be having a small, controlled inflation -which may actually help our economy rather than hurt it as many US citizens assume would result. Since what we're currently doing isn't working, we have got to try something different. Success is possible if people would be open to trying new things. Prejudices are being created against foreigners, illegal or not, and this is causing many issues of racism to surface. We really need to chill about who has the jobs and space and just make sure there are jobs and that they are getting done. According to most researchers, only about five percent of the country's jobs are held by unauthorized immigrants anyway. Are we really arguing over that five percent when a higher number of their children are in our schools (79 percent of which were born here) and would be likely be ripped away either from their parents or with their parents due to stricter deportation laws (pewresearch.org Nov. 2015)? In my opinion, anyone that works hard to get through school (or do a crappy job for that matter) deserves the chance to make it happen.
Teamwork is almost always a great option. Of course it could be even more so when there is an issue involving such a large conflict. What the USA needs to do is take a moment and analyze our situation as thoroughly as possible and consider all possibilities. Truth be told, the "Border War" should not be our biggest concern. For being known as a place of opportunity, we sure do let greed get the best of us sometimes. Imagine if every complication was taken on singularly. It would not necessarily be a bad idea to meet with Mexico's leaders, as long as they're willing to work out a solution that hopefully could be mutually beneficial. Border immigration should definitely be controlled, but it should not be impossible or illegal. Basically, Mexico should follow the same immigration rules as the other countries of the world, and for the most part those rules should all be the same. To me, it seems really unfair that I was born here with all these opportunities within my reach, yet other people are risking their lives for them and still having them be denied. And really, this problem does not stem from Mexico alone. Not even all the people trying to come in the Mexican/USA border are even from Mexico. Our U.S. leaders should meet with other leaders of the world and come up with some more just immigration/travel laws. Maybe the best idea would be to have one giant waiting list, instead of a separate one for each country and more importantly, immigrants would be on the list where they signed up to be, not where they paid/qualified to be. The way it is, it's absolutely no wonder why other countries stereotype us as judgmental. The visitation laws should positively be more consistent and efficient. (What I wouldn't do to make it easier to see my husband's family in Brazil. They love Brazil, but not everything about it. I would love to be able to do something about it! I'm sure people all over the country have similar situations in relation to most parts of the world.) It sure would be nice if there was a worldwide organization that worked to educate governments about one another so we could all learn from each other's successes and mistakes and somehow hold each other accountable in a just and courteous way. Someday world peace could be possible. The track we're on right now, though, is further dividing the world instead of working to maintain or progress in it. Which, incidentally, costs so many lives that could be prevented if we just put some imagination, work, probably compromise, and most importantly heart into it.
Our initial question remains: How many more deaths and separated families will amount from this issue? Maybe a few or maybe even thousands more than have already been lost. No matter where you stand on this issue, there is no way you can stand to let 6,000 (Mind you, this is from the Mexican border crossings alone. -Huffington Post, 2014) more deaths walk by. Let's stop watching idly and do something about it!
