Open Borders and National Security - Essay Example

Among the laws that govern immigration in the country are the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 (the United States, 1978). The two have provided an effective system for legal immigrants but have failed in protecting the country against the problem of an illegal immigrant. So far, the government has adopted the open but closed border policy in the management of the Mexico-US border. I believe the policy has the ability to enable cross border trade while containing the rising illegal immigrants' menace.

Prior to this week’s reading, I believed that the government was losing the fight against illegal immigrants. However, after studying some of the policies including the open but closed border policy, I now believe that while the problem is serious, the American government in collaboration with the neighboring governments is striving to seal off the borders thereby curtailing the problem (Krikorian, 2010).