The wall & security

Shannon Bohrer

(3/2019) The President has been consistent with his message that we need a wall on our southern boarder for safety and security. He says that the people crossing our border are dangerous; they are criminals, drug offenders and even terrorist. We generally agree that we have a failed immigration system and since we also continue to experience individuals entering illegally into the United States, a problem does exist.

To correct the problem, the president has proposed a wall, running the entire length of the border. The border between the United States and Mexico is 1,954 miles long. Currently there are 650 miles of wall/fencing, along the border. According to the Secure Fence Act, a law passed in 2006, 700 miles of fencing was authorized to be built. So some fencing already exists.

"Things that are obvious are not necessarily true, and many things that are true are not all obvious." - Dr. Joseph LeDoux

According to the president this is a national emergency and it’s getting worse. However, the facts don’t support his assertion. The undocumented immigrant population that had entered the U.S. crossing our borders was estimated at 12.2 million, in 2007. Since the recession in 2008, more undocumented immigrants have left via our southern border than entered the U.S. via our southern border. The illegal immigrants currently living here is below 11 million, a 13 year low. We have had net negative numbers for a few years, at least on the southern border. Another way to examine the problem is by the number of arrests. In 2000, the Border Patrol arrested 1,676,438 immigrants for crossing our borders. In 2018, the Border Patrol arrested 396,579 immigrants for crossing our borders. Arrest on our southern border is the lowest since 1971, a 46 year low. While the problem has been declining that does not mean the problem has been resolved.

I believe that it is important that we give some credit for the decline in illegal crossings to the Border Patrol, which includes over 20,000 agents. The 20,000 number was reached in 2011, under President Obama, who gave credit to his predecessor, President Bush for some of the increases. In 2004 the Border Patrol numbered around 10,000, so it doubled in 8 years. The authorized numbers have not really increased since 2011.

We should also credit The Secure Fence Act, which occurred in 2007. The act was intended to increase security along our southern border. The security measures have been improved and upgraded and more work is already slated. There are currently walls, electronic alarms, aircraft, boats and drones, all assisting the agents. The ideas for many of the improvements have been to incorporate smart technology. The improvements along with the increased number of agents appear to have been successful.

While the news on immigration seems focused on the southern border, immigrants arrive by air, sea and land. More than one million, arrive each year, most of them legally. In a 2006 Pew Research Project, it was estimated that "nearly half of all the unauthorized migrants now living in the US entered the county legally though a port of entry, such as an airport or a border crossing whey they were subject to inspection by immigration officials." Since the Pew Research Project, the major growth factor of undocumented immigrants is the overstays of visas and in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). The Visa Waiver Program allows citizens from 38 countries to visit the United States for up to 90 days, without obtaining a visa.

Every year, about half of the million people coming into the country arrive with temporary visas for education, work and tourism. An issue with the visa system is that when someone enters the U.S., the information is collected, but we do not record any information when they leave. We are the ONLY industrialized nation that does not collect this information. The Department of Homeland Security cannot provide any statistics on the, "percentage of undocumented immigrants who overstayed visas" (Politi-Fact, Virginia 2016). Individuals arriving in the U.S. on the Visa Waiver Program are subsequently tracked after their arrival, but only on other air travel within the country. Currently, it is estimated that there are 40 million people living here that were born in another country. 40 million is a large number.

While the immigration problem on our southern border is a concern, there are more undocumented people crossing the northern border. The number of undocumented immigrants entering the U.S. from Canada has increased 142 percent just since 2017. Individuals from South America can fly from Mexico into Canada for around $300.00. From Canada they then enter the U.S., where there is much less security along the border.

The immigration issue is often placed into the context of safety. The concept, or idea that we are in more danger because of the immigrants, is not always true. In a recent study form the University of Wisconsin and Purdue, the conclusion was"…‘undocumented immigration does not increase violence.’" There have been numerous studies that tell us that immigrants commit crimes at much lower rates than native born Americans. Obviously some immigrants will commit crimes so stopping them and having the ability to conduct background checks is important. It may not matter to a person that immigrants commit fewer crimes, if that person or a family member is a victim of a crime committed by an immigrant.

The president also has repeatedly told us that many of the immigrants from the southern border are terrorists. The U.S. maintains a terrorist watch list of suspected terrorist that immigration and border patrol use when checking anyone entering our country. In a recent six-month period, 41 people were stopped on the southern borders that were on the terrorist watch list. Of the 41 people stopped, 35 were American citizens. Only 6 were not citizens. On our northern border during the same time period 91 people were stopped that were on the terrorist watch list, with 50 of those being American citizens. There were 2,170 persons that were prevented from flying into the U.S. because they were on the terrorist watch list. Being on the Terrorist Screening Database does not mean the person is a terrorist, but it does mean they should be screened more. The non-citizens on the terrorist watch list are denied entry while the U.S. Citizens on the list are allowed entry.

The facts are that most of our threats are not coming from our southern border. Maybe we should direct our focus on our northern border and a better visa tracking system. Of course, the U.S. citizens on the terrorist watch list, re-entering the country, are still able to purchase firearms.

Who knew that border security was so complicated?