Border Security Karina Ordonez discusses border security issues that relate to homeland security, specifically the Arizona/Sedona portion of the U.S. / Mexico border. Although it is only a small portion of the actual border, it is currently the most porous part of the border. Therefore, as strategies are implemented to deal with border security, they are going to have to deal with this border. Despite that fact, Ordonez cautions against focusing solely on the border when discussing the border and border security. She makes the point that the border is generally a transition area; people pass through border areas to other areas to find jobs in the interior of the country. Therefore, immigration reform that focuses solely on border security does not address the reason that many people are illegally immigrating to the United States, which is farm work in the interior states. In order to fix the issue illegal immigration, immigration reform has to concentrate on job availability, not simply porous borders. As a result, Ordonez appears to support immigration reform that would permit...

She points out that families are separated by the border, and that water rights and geographic issues are impacted by policies on both sides of the border. As a result, she suggests that neither the United States nor Mexico can develop policy to truly control the border area because of the unique culture that has developed in that area. She also does not seem to believe that the issue of border security can ever be divorced from the larger political and cultural issues, such as the ability of families to stay together. As a result, she suggests that border security will remain an emotional issue, which will keep it relevant as a hot-topic political…