Introduction
Illegal immigrations means the movement of persons across national boarders in manner that goes against the immigration laws of the country that they are moving to(Wikipedea definition).The people breaking this immigration laws are known as illegal immigrants and they cross over either by land,air or water. The term can also incorporate a wider meaning if defined politically. In political understanding it includes social aspects and time restrictions that pertains to human rights,public services,voting rights,social welfare,slavery,prostitution,crime,legal protection,economic activities, and access to education and health facilities. The issue of illegal immigration normally occurs due to difficulties that arise in one’s home country,which force them to flee their country in such for greener pastures in other countries. These difficulties normally include natural calamities and the ones which are human initiated. Some of the include issues like civil wars,desire to unite with one’s family,unfavorable economic situations , and unrolled population growth that lead to strain provision of human needs. These illegal immigrants are exposed to a lot of risk including slavery,opting to prostitution as a livelihood activity,exposure to rape cases and death by either physical attack,hunger or disease.
Main Discussion
The United states illegal immigrants statics. Its estimated that the US illegal immigrates are over ten million people,where a percentage near to 75% is not documented because they normally arrive across the US Southern border with Mexico,having most of them coming from countries like Mexico,Colombia ,El Salvador,Guatemala and also from other sooth and Central America Countries(Kennedy,16). This illegal immigrants normally find their way in the united state either through an overstayed Visa,Fraudulent marriages,boarder crossing or entry by sea.
Efforts to Control Illegal Immigration. The control of illegal immigration in the United State is a debatable issue that forms both prosing and opposing groups. The opposing group is concerned with the security,environment and the deportation costs that involved in illegal immigration saga. There are other indirect effects that follow after the entry of this illegal immigrants in the US including the increased identification cost,drug smuggling and gang violence. The proposing group is comprised mostly on labor and profit hungry enterprises who need cheap labor that is favorably supplied from the illegal immigrants,given that most of them left their countries in such for a job in the US so as to lead a better live,where these enterprises take advantage of them to meet their targets. Regardless of two division their has been efforts trying to control illegal immigrate from entering into the US, and they include the following;
Prosecuting firms that hire illegal immigrants. The US government has taken the measure of prosecuting firm that hire Illegal immigrants as part of their work force. They are fined for a crime committed. This normally deter firms from hiring illegal immigrants,because its consequence is ti incur an expense that is avoidable,therefore firms are forced to indirectly scrutinize their employees before they hire them,purposely to identified their immigration status. The employers are expected to check on the mismatches between the reported Social Security cards reported with the immigration Authorities and their actual names of the card holder.
Government Bodies constituted to control illegal immigration. A Body by the name the U.S. Customs and Boarder Protection (CBP) is in operation in attempt to apprehend individuals trying to get into the United State without permit,in conjunction with its mission of preventing terrorism, and the protection of the America’s intellectual property from theft among other responsibilities like the protection of Agricultural and economic interests of the US people from pests and disease(Thomas,195). An agency by the name the United States Boarder Patrol within the CBP body is the one responsible for immigration and boarder laws enforcement as given in the Immigration and National act of the United States. This agency performs the functions of deterring,detecting and apprehending illegal immigrants and other persons participating in the illegal drug who enter the United State through designated ports. The illegal immigrants caught by this agency are charged under the federal statues.
The construction of Separation Barriers. The United state of America has build the separation barriers. Separation barriers are wall or fences that are constructed purposely to restrict the movement of persons from one territory to another territory. The United states Representatives voted ,in December 2005, voted for the construction of a separation barrier along the already unprotected areas by then in order to restrain illegal immigrants from entering into the US. The United States senate later voted for the construction of a 1,380km separation barrier with vehicle barriers and triple layer fencing ,to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants into the country(Wikipedea Website).The congress also approved the construction of a fence along the United States and Mexico Boarder,in the year 2007 that was to cover a distance of 1,100 km as a measure of reducing the number of illegal immigrants into the United States. All these have been efforts of the government in building and extending separation barriers to coup illegal immigration.
Deployment of Police and Military officers along the border. The United states has been ensuring the enforcement of immigration laws by deploying police at the boarders in making sure that there are no illegal immigrants entering into the United states. The federal judges,although ruled that the issues of illegal immigration are supposed to be handled by the federal government,which restrained state and local communities from an attempts of controlling illegal immigration. In the year 1995,the congress gave the department of defense a responsibility of enforcing civilian law which included the control of illegal immigration. This responsibility backed the direct participation of department of defense personnel in law enforcing activities like arrest,seizure and search,in the process of enforcing immigration and custom laws along the boarders. The presence of Military along boarders ,with their specialized equipment like FLIR infrared devices and helicopters,while working in co-operation which the United States boarder patrol,enabled less traffic across boarders,which directly implied either no or very few illegal immigrants into the United States,despite the presence of “coyotes” who were being paid to help border crossers. This responsibility of the military being at the border to enforce immigration law was scrapped in the year 1997 and reinstated in the year 2001 after the famous attack of the United states of September 11,2001.
Conclusion
There are massive flows of illegal immigrants into the united state,and its estimated to be a number that if over twenty million. The major reason for this massive illegal is the increased number of people intending to lead a better live of which they can’t get in their countries of birth,thus they opt to cross the boundaries into the United States in search for jobs in focus to improve their standards of living. This is the major reason among other reasons like war,family reunion and economic instabilities. The issue of controlling illegal immigrants in the united States is real debatable in the sense that others are supporting it due to the access of cheap labor by profit and labor hungry firms in the United States.
The group that is opposing it consider issue concerning their security,environment and the deportation expenses involved in returning these illegal immigrants to their countries of origin,which are translated as tax burden to the United states Economy. Regardless the divisions their has been measures in place in controlling this illegal immigrations. The firms that hire illegal immigrants are fined,which is a deterrence factor to firms,which in turn discourage the entrance of more illegal immigrants into the US because they are not job guaranteed. There has been a federal body, U.S. Custom and Boarder Protection, that monitors the flow of immigrants across the boarder into the US,in checking for illegal immigrants , detecting the possibilities of terror attacks and the protection of US intellectual rights for economic interests. Separation barriers have been build to restrain illegal immigrants from entering into the United states and this involves the physical barriers like construction of fences. Department of defense personnels are actively involved in enforcing the immigration laws across the boarders although it has been an on and off operation depending on the urgency of the situation.
Work cited
Thomas J. Espenshade; “Unauthorized Immigration to the United States” Annual Review of Sociology. Volume: 21. 1995. pp 195.
Kennedy,John F. A Nation of Immigrants. New York: Harper and Row,1964. pp16.