Legal Migration Benefits of Allowing

¶ … legal migration [...] benefits of allowing legal migration from Mexico to the U.S. And the damaging effects of not allowing legal migration. In addition, it will analyze the problems and dangers that have come from the increased border patrols. Allowing more legal migration from Mexico into the United States is a controversial issue that has been addressed by many, but never acted upon. The flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico into the U.S. takes its toll in many forms, allowing more legal immigrants to enter the U.S. would solve many problems, including death in the deserts, smugglers trafficking in human lives, and reuniting families separated by time and borders. Legal immigration from Mexico must be addressed and increased, for our benefit, and for the benefit of so many Mexican citizens who want to better their lives.

The history of legal and illegal immigration into the country from Mexico has not always been fraught with problems. In the 1940s, the "bracero" program allowed Mexican farm workers to immigrate to the United States to work primarily in the farmlands of California and Texas. The program was temporary, and allowed workers to come into the country because of a labor shortage in the U.S. caused by World War II. It continued rather sporadically until 1964, when the U.S. ended the program, feeling it artificially lowered the wages for American farm workers. When the program ended, the Border Patrol, the enforcement division of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), (now called the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS), apprehended perhaps 42,000 illegal workers attempting to enter the country along the Mexican border. By 1974, that number had skyrocketed to at least 710,000 illegal immigrants apprehended attempting to enter the country, and in 1986, the peak year, 1.7 million people were apprehended. Today, at least 1,000,000 workers are apprehended each year (Borjas and Fisher 626). In 1986, President Reagan and the Congress enacted the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), a form of amnesty that allowed many illegal aliens already in the country to remain in the country legally. It also created many sanctions against employers who hire illegal aliens. In September 2001, just before the terrorist attacks of September 11, President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox met to discuss a new accord between the two countries to ensure immigration reform. However, the talks broke off after the terrorist attacks, and have not resumed. However, President Bush is proposing a reform bill that would allow immigrant workers to enter the United States legally for a specified period of time that would allow the USCIS to more easily track immigrants, and reduce the number of illegal immigrants coming into the country. Most people agree the current immigration laws are not working, and need to be reformed, and this would be one way to help the USCIS and the immigrants.

One major problem legal migration would address is the smuggling of human cargo across the Mexican border. Numerous stories about illegal migrants dieing in the desert, or in locked trucks and railroad cars have gained national attention, and as more people desperately try to come into the country, the numbers and stories will only increase. Immigrants pay smugglers, (called coyotes), to bring them safely to a border crossing point, and get them safely across. They can pay anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars, and often the coyotes bring them to the border, give them false information, and send them across the burning deserts of Arizona, California, and Texas to their deaths. The author of "Dead in Their Tracks" tells of one group abandoned in the desert by their coyote, "In the two days and nights that followed, fourteen people were rescued from the throes of death by Border Patrol trackers and U.S. Customs agents, while thirteen of their companions died miserably after failing to slake their thirst with perfume and urine. Two others were never found, and one coyote escaped. (Annerino 12). Other immigrants have been found locked in semi-trailers or railroad cars, dead or dying from lack of food and water, and from the incredible heat inside their prisons. They paid smugglers for the privilege, and died in the process. Many of these migrants are women and children. To avoid Border Patrol agents, smugglers will do just about anything, as these stories indicate. They worry less about the safety of the immigrants, and more about their own safety. After September 11, Border Patrols increased, and so did the incidence of immigrants taking more chances in getting across the border. Smuggling is one of the biggest problems with illegal immigration, and one of the Border Patrol's biggest responsibilities. However, since the 9/11 attacks, much of the Border Patrol's focus has shifted from stopping illegal immigrants to national security, and allowing more legal immigrants into the country would give the Border Patrol more time to focus on security and another problem with the border - drug smuggling.

In addition, if legal numbers of migrants are raised, there will be less of an incentive for many migrants to enter the country illegally. Currently, there are no real accurate numbers of how many illegal immigrants enter the country from Mexico each year and make the country their home but some estimates range to over 1,000,000 or more each year. Illegal immigrants face sanctions and deportation if they are discovered, and they often use false identification, including social security cards and driver's licenses, to gain employment with U.S. employers. If more legal immigrants were allowed into the country, then many of these problems would decrease, and employers could be surer the workers they hire are legally authorized to work in the U.S.

Finally, many people do not know that the U.S. military also aids the Border Patrol in areas along the Mexican border. In fact, in 1997, a U.S. Marine killed a young boy along the Texas border who was simply herding goats. The Border Patrol explains the military's involvement as an aid to drug enforcement, but increasingly, they are aiding in illegal immigrant enforcement, too. One author states, "The military and Border Patrol are bureaucratic entities, and their law enforcement efforts target subordinated groups: working-poor undocumented immigrants, and poor, low-level drug couriers ('mules')" (Dunn). If more legal migration is allowed, then the military involvement with the Border Patrol would not be as necessary, and incidents like the tragic murder of a young boy may not occur again. The Border Patrol does not have enough manpower to patrol every inch of the Mexican border from San Diego through Texas, and so, undocumented aliens will always be able to slip through somewhere. The Border Patrol should be focusing on the drug trade, which is much more dangerous that migration activity, and it should also be focused on keeping terrorists out of the country. Therefore, if more legal migration into the U.S. was allowed, the Border Patrol would achieve their mission better, and the USCIS would have fewer problems with illegal aliens, paperwork, and deportation, and hopefully they could reduce the backlog of cases they now have waiting for processing and eventual citizenship.